Double Meanings (Revised)
by BlackApology
Summary: "I was looking; looking for any sign of what made this kid tick. What made him tick if not just his alice?" From the moment Natsume Hyuuga entered Alice Academy there was something different about him. No one knew this better than his first partner Kokutan Saito.
1. Chapter 1

For anyone coming here after discovering the original version was taken down, surprise! So there's really only one major change to this Revised version and that's the characters' ages. Since the fic starts two years before the manga starts up, that would, according to canon, place all the ages at around 8 years old. I tried that, everyone agreed that it was too young. So I changed it so everyone's around 11 instead, which means when Hotaru and Sakura enroll two years later it'll be at age 13. Despite this I'm not going to change very much with the canon-verse, but will be adding a few things. Like good ol' puberty.

If you guys have any questions as you go on, whether on the story or how the age difference impacts certain things, please ask. I've researched things extensively and have everything saved to a special folder in case I forget any details, and I'm more than happy to explain my reasoning. Now moving on from the ridiculously long A/N.

**Disclaimer: Mumble. Mumble-mumble. **

[o]

Chapter 1

Red. It's a confusing color. It's beautiful and yet tragic. It signifies life, yet also represents death. It's funny how something can come across both ways: beautiful yet ugly. People are like that, too. A person may be seen as evil to one, yet as pure to another. I thought that often when I first met Natsume Hyuuga.

It was a clear, sunny day when he was introduced to our class. It was the perfect irony, considering what he was about to get caught up in. I knew this kid wasn't normal; he was special, and I knew this because anyone passing by Persona could feel his well-contained excitement.

There was definitely something different about the kid, and I didn't want to have anything to do with him, because anything that got Persona in such a mood didn't mean good news.

He stood at the front of the class with another kid his age being introduced by the baka sensei Narumi, and he observed the class with eyes as crimson as blood. That's what got my train of thought going. The one next to him observed the class with blank, expressionless eyes, and in this they were twins. Twins who weren't related. They must be friends. I hadn't heard anything about the blonde one, though, so figured he wouldn't be an issue.

"Class, these are the new students, please be good to them. Go ahead and introduce yourselves." The dark one introduced himself first, and the light one followed in his fashion. Definitely friends. Friends with a dark past and stained souls.

"Well then, I'll assign you partners who can help you get accustomed to the Academy life. Nogi, your partner will be Tobita Yuu – please raise your hand – and Hyuuga…" here he stopped for a second, and his eyes flitted over to my uninterested gaze. I knew what he was going to say before he said it and nearly got up and walked out of the room that instant. "Your partner will be Saito Kokutan – please raise your hand." I didn't raise my hand. He repeated himself, looking directly at me, and the kid followed his gaze to meet my own. I reluctantly raised my hand. Looking back on it now, I wish I had fought against getting him as a partner. He made everything so much more complicated.

Hyuuga seemed just as pleased to have me as a partner as I did him, and while Yuu naturally tried to befriend the blonde boy when he took his seat, the two of us promptly ignored each other.

As soon as the baka sensei left as he always does, the class erupted into talk, ignoring the substitute teacher who sat growing mushrooms in the corner, muttering to himself.

Whispers and mutters quickly filled the air on the new kids, but their cold demeanor kept anyone from approaching. For now. And yet the two of us continued to ignore each other. It registered to me that he'd have questions about the Academy, and that being his partner I was expected to answer those questions, but I was still thinking of the color red, and the things it signified.

It wasn't long before Tobita and his new partner were standing next to us. I wasn't surprised, and continued to ignore them, too.

"Hello," said the polite Tobita, introducing himself to my partner. "I'm Tobita Yuu, but please call me Yuu." There wasn't an answer and I turned my head, which was resting on my hand, to see my partner's reaction.

He had slid his eyes over to look at Tobita, and that was it. Interest sparked in me, as that was quite an odd reaction for one so young. Definitely a dark past.

Tobita lifted from a small bow, raising his hand to scratch the back of his head and give an awkward chuckle, before opening his eyes and settling them on me.

"Has Kutan-chan introduced herself yet?" No answer, but that didn't faze him. "Your partner is Saito Kokutan, but everyone calls her Kutan." Not that I told them to, or anything. My gaze slid over to Tobita's partner – Nogi – and saw something peculiar in his eyes. Jealousy, no doubt aimed at me for being the partner of his friend, along with protectiveness for said friend, and all in all, there was a challenge.

"I'm Nogi Ruka," he introduced himself, and I noticed that there was no invitation to call him by his first name. And who am I to turn down a challenge? I accept.

"What does blood mean to you, Nogi?" I asked him. His eyes widened a fraction, and I saw the interest in Hyuuga's eyes as they slid over to me. "You too, Hyuuga. What does blood mean to you?" There was silence, and Nogi quickly regained his composure.

"It depends who's asking," he answered easily.

"It means death." My eyebrow raised slightly at Hyuuga's answer, having predicted Nogi's.

"So you've seen death." I let the conclusion hang. I never said in which context. It could be in a movie, or a video game. But if they reacted in a certain way…

"What are you talking about?" Nogi immediately defended.

…it would mean they had actually seen death. Dark past, stained souls. It made sense. I turned my head to them fully, interest piqued.

"Who did you see die?" Nogi immediately bristled and began uttering excuses, claiming he didn't have any idea what I was talking about and that I was crazy. The such. But I hadn't asked him, and the person I had asked was leveling me with a glare. Someone close? No, his gaze is too strong.

"Nogi," I drawled, growing irritated. "I asked Hyuuga and you're the one over-reacting. Couples with an overbearing partner never work." His eyes widened while Hyuuga's grew even narrower.

"We're not a couple!" Nogi immediately burst out. If the classroom had been any less loud since the whispers and mutters had turned into full out questions, no doubt everyone's gazes would've been turned to us. I raised my other eyebrow.

"Oh, did I say couple? My mistake." I could almost see something snap inside of him, and no doubt I would've gotten an earful, but Hyuuga interrupted him.

"Ruka," is all he said. Though he was visibly upset about it, Nogi shut his mouth and straightened up. Hm. Tobita, with that ridiculous I-don't-know-what-to-do look on his face immediately pulled him away, saying there were other people he wanted to introduce him to. And no doubt they wanted to be introduced, too, if the long glances and questioning gazes coming at both of them were to say anything.

"You're wrong," he said, breaking the silence that had spread between us again.

"Oh?"

"We haven't seen anyone die." Hm? But the stain on their souls has to be explained somehow. Then he slid his eyes over to me like he had to Tobita, and I saw pain there. Fresh pain, and not the physical kind. Whatever had happened had happened recently – possibly the reason they had been brought to the Academy in the first place. But it was fresh, so I knew I wouldn't be learning his secrets any time soon.

I turned my head and rested it back on my hand, bored once again.

Once the hordes finally descended I stood up to leave. The substitute likely wouldn't be able to teach anything with two new exchange victims, so there wasn't any point in me staying anyway. What are they going to do, give me detention? Expel me?

"Oi," came the voice behind me. I turned to him. Right, I'm supposed to show him around and explain things to him.

"Just follow Tobita around. He'll show you and Nogi what to do." He continued to look at me with those red eyes, and I twitched as soon as the horde was upon us.

"Tch." I suppose it wasn't his fault that Narumi baka sensei had assigned me as his partner, and I couldn't very well show him around right now. It wouldn't be good for him to miss his first day of class, when teachers get their initial impression of new students and begin deciding their star ranking.

True, I normally wouldn't care about things so unimportant, but he had gotten Persona excited, and that meant everything had to be treated different around him. So I sat back down, leaned back on my seat, and tried to sleep while discreetly listening to the conversations going on around me.

The loud pre-teens soon to graduate into Middle School weren't as obviously interested in the new students as the younger students, so they continued their own antics in their own chairs. I'd never before been so thankful for the bratty older kids, but they were much better than the ones attempting to interrogate Hyuuga and Nogi. Note: Attempt. The most prominent of these two being Umenomiya Anna and her friend Ogasawara Nonoko. Having previously been the newest two in the class, they no doubt were happy to have all the attention shifted onto even newer students.

It was entirely too long before Jinno-Sensei replaced the bumbling fool substitute teacher and actually managed to maintain some order in the class of hyper-active kids with alleged superpowers. It was an amazing feat that not many could manage. A few zaps of electricity flew around and before we knew it any kids floating in the air had returned to their desks, and those with more animated Alices quickly had their creations dissipate or scatter. Ah, blessed silence.

I once again opened my eyes and sat up, summarizing his words as efficiently as I could and jotting them down neatly in my notebook. True, the chances of me ever getting out of the Academy were little to zero, but that didn't mean I had to be stupid in my time here. Maybe it's my pride, or maybe it was me trying to find purpose in this life. Whatever it was, I didn't dwell on it for long.

Besides, my brief and descriptive notes came in handy quite often, for when the actual stupid people found themselves struggling near Jinno's tests and didn't want zapped for failing. I often rented them out for an unreasonably expensive price. See how much I could weasel out of them. Everyone has their hobbies; mine just happens to be cheating people out of their Rabbits.

Once lunch rolled around Hyuuga was joined by Ruka, and the two followed Tobita to get lunch, which suited me just fine. I needed to find that baka sensei.

He was easy enough to find – being in the staff room eating his own lunch. I stopped at the door and he saw me while raising his chopsticks to his mouth. It promptly stopped and he sweat dropped.

"Baka sensei," I called. "We need to talk." Had I addressed Jinno-sensei like that I would've been electrocuted into next week; if I had addressed Persona like that my missions for the next month would be painful and long with interspersed punishments all throughout for non-existent mistakes. Yet Baka-sensei just walked over. Which is part of the reason no one could take him seriously. He doesn't give any reason to take him seriously.

"Kutan-chan!" Was his greeting, which I ignored, and he shut the door behind him.

"Why'd you give me Hyuuga?" Nogi I wouldn't have minded so much, but Hyuuga would no doubt be the center of trouble in due time. His eyes softened, becoming unreadable in a falsely innocent way.

"I thought you'd have questions about that."

"Why?" Was my immediate question. Why would he feel the need to give me a partner? Why that particular boy who no doubt would have trouble nipping at his heel, and as his partner I'd just as likely get pulled into it.

"That's actually a good question. But I can't answer it." My head snapped over to him, a challenge burning in my gaze. He sighed with false defeat, but I knew it was just an act. Everything he did was all just an act. As if the world was his stage and we were just the audience or some props.

"It's not my secret to tell. But I can tell you that you two are very similar."

"He only got here today, how would you know?" The baka sensei suddenly turned serious like he does occasionally, and my interest showed itself again.

"Persona's interested in him." My shoulders fell a fraction, but my gaze stayed indifferent. I was right; this kid was trouble. Not only was Persona excited about this kid, he's interested. With Persona, the combination of those two things was never a good thing.

"I could've refused," I told him suddenly. He nodded, once again the baka.

"But you didn't." Of course I didn't. Because of his eyes. His dark, blood red eyes that had the guard over them that no one his age should have. The same guard I see in the mirror. Not like I would ever tell Narumi that.

"You should go get lunch," he finally said when the silence stretched out too long. I turned around, but with no intention of going to the cafeteria.

"It's almost done anyway." I could almost feel his eyebrows raise, even while walking away from him.

"You need to eat, Kutan-chan. Especially with your schedule." And by my schedule, he of course meant my _missions. _I stopped walking, back still towards him.

"Don't pretend you care, baka-sensei. It doesn't suit you." There was a sigh from behind me.

"At least make sure to show Natsume-kun where to find his room." Where do the undetermined stars stay? I'd never had to bother with that, since I'd been given a special star the moment I stepped foot into the Academy. It was my turn to sigh.

"Fine. Where is he staying anyway?"

"Well, you see, he's a special star like you." And suddenly it clicked. I was a special star because I had the fourth form Alice – the most powerful – and when I came Persona was interested in _me_. I whirled around to face baka sensei.

"He's a fourth form." There was sadness in his eyes before I'd even said it. I frowned at him (it was more of a glare).

"How do you know?" Had they already run tests and drills? Did they do that as soon as he got here? The Academy must be desperate for powerful Alices if they're becoming so quick about it. From what I've seen they usually wait a few days.

"We're not certain yet, but there are a lot of fingers pointing in that direction." I turned back around, this time heading for the cafeteria. More precisely, the blood-eyed boy in there. Narumi was quiet as I stalked off, no doubt lost in his own thoughts. Perhaps guilt at knowing he was part of the Academy who caused so much pain and suffering. So much death. But then again, everything he does is an act, and sometimes I wonder if he's even aware of that himself.

Once inside the cafeteria I went to the serving area, declining the large portion offered to me by the Nanny-bot as a special star and instead took an apple and a glass of water. I knew the baka sensei was for once right in that I needed to eat, but I just wasn't hungry.

I spotted them quickly. When I approached the loud conversations quietened and when I stood behind the two people sitting across from Hyuuga they immediately scooted away, making room for me, and then a bit extra. Fear. It's something I like. Respect, just the same. And I have both.

He eyed me for a moment, then turned back to his meal. I did the same, except I didn't eye him. I full out stared while taking chunks out of the red apple or sipping at my water.

I was looking; looking for any sign of what made this kid tick. What made him so interesting, if not just his Alice? Why the out of character moods from Persona?

"Why don't you just take a picture?" Hyuuga said – sighed, really – having grown tired of my staring.

"A picture won't capture what I'm looking for," I answered easily. One of his eyebrows raised, but I didn't explain.

"What's your Alice?" I asked abruptly. He stiffened and didn't answer. Ooh, touchy subject. But I was curious, and this kid didn't know to fear and respect me, yet.

Taking in his cool gaze and level eyes I couldn't help but think that he didn't fear or respect anyone, and would likely become the feared and respected himself. Just the same, that hasn't happened yet and I currently have both, so I continued to stare him down.

Nogi, who had pulled himself into our conversation, sent a hard look my way.

"What's _your _Alice?"

"I asked first," I replied smoothly, not even sparing him a glance. At mine and Nogi's exchange a slight tint of curiosity grew in Hyuuga's eyes, and I saw that I'd won.

"Fire," he spat out. Definitely a touchy subject. I raised an eyebrow, understanding Persona's interest now, and then leaned forward with a smirk on my face. Here's the fun part.

"I make peoples' worst fears their reality." Tobita, who had also nosed his way into our conversation elaborated on my mysterious reply, completely ruining the fun.

"Her Alice is a lot like mine," he explained, leading me to believe he'd already explained his own Alice, which was illusion. "Except she's able to sense peoples' fears, and then able to make them see it."

"Not only see it," I elaborated, figuring if he's going to ruin my fun he may as well get his facts straight. "I make them feel it, too. It's like they're actually experiencing it."

Nogi was looking at me with the fear I loved to see, but there wasn't respect there; there was wariness. Close enough. Hyuuga, though, began to look at me like I was a threat. A subtle glare graced his features, and I wanted to look. I wanted to look at what was causing such a reaction to my Alice. What did he fear? I almost reached out, but the disciplinary restrains covering my body sent out warning shocks.

I narrowed my eyes in annoyance, surprising Hyuuga because he no doubt thought I was glaring at him. No, I'm glaring at Persona. At the whole Academy in general, really.

Once lunch finished I tossed my half-finished meal and followed the chattering group back to the classroom.

One thing's for certain: this kid wasn't any good news.

[o]

As you can see, very minimal changes. However, there _are _little changes that I added with the intent of bringing out the initial relationship between Hyuuga and Saito. My hope in adding this is to bring out the gradual change from forced companionship to mutual friendship. And, well, also some random changes just added because.


	2. Chapter 2

**Read at your own risk: ****Thank you very much. That truly means a lot to me. And thank you for being so patient while I got this going.**

Again, not much changed in this chapter. I did do a bit more research on the characters (trying to refamiliarize myself with everyone) and decided to include more on what Natsume's experiencing on his first day of school. Must say that I'm pleased with the decision.

**Disclaimer: I only own OCs and my plot. Nothing you recognize.**

[o]

Chapter 2

After enduring the rest of the classes (something I hadn't done in a long time) we were finally released for the day. As the hordes stormed out of the room and I was followed out by the three, I felt my eye twitch. I should've just ditched him. I should've ignored the baka-sensei like I always do. Because these classes are much too long for my taste, which I usually expressed by leaving about half-way through them.

"Hurry up," I grumbled. I intended to show Hyuuga where the special star rooms were and then abandon him for my own. And I'd very much like to get there some time _today, _thank you very much. Why was Tobita following me, anyway?

"Tobita, why aren't you showing your own partner around?" He immediately snapped to attention.

"Well, uh, I thought Hyuuga-kun and Ruka-kun would like to stay together because they're…" he trailed off at my look.

"_Ruka-_kun_," _I mocked in a drawl, earning a glare from said boy. "I already told you that clingy partners don't work in relationships. You've got to let him live his own life." Anger colored his face, but the red there wasn't nearly as captivating as the red of Hyuuga's eyes, so I turned away.

"We're not a couple!" Came the indignant cry from behind me, which I easily ignored.

"Well then. Tobita, Nogi, catch you later." And I walked away, Hyuuga trailing nonchalantly behind me. Now if I was somewhat considerate I might have considered their feelings and how they really probably would have preferred to stay together on their first day in a new environment surrounded by hundreds of students they've never met. But I'm not, so I didn't.

The long walk was completely silent on both of our parts, and I was immensely grateful. If he had ended up being a talkative person, I would've murdered him in his sleep and blamed it on Tobita. Unfortunately, the blessed silence was too quick to be broken.

"Where are we going?" Oh, didn't I tell him?

"I'm showing you your dorm." I considered leaving it there, but sighed in a moment of mercy.

"You've already been deemed a special star – top rank – no doubt because of something you did before entering the academy," because there's no way he had been tested already.

"What star are you?". Interesting question. Almost like he was scoping me out. Like I'm the enemy. My eyebrow raised a fraction of an inch. Smart kid.

"I'm also a special star. We're currently the only ones in the Elementary branch."

"What does it mean?" Whoa, the walk's making him talkative. I preferred him glaring and quiet. Maybe he thinks since I'm acting like his partner somewhat he can treat me like one. Time to set him straight.

"Look, I'm just dropping you off. Once you're off my back feel free to ask anyone else your questions." There, boundaries set. In time he'll realize that just because we're partners it doesn't actually mean we have to be friendly or talk or any such nonsense.

The special stars had a special wing of the Elementary dorm building. Of course we did take up a whole wing, since the rooms were pretty much apartments, but I wasn't about to complain. Sure, only two of the many rooms were filled, but it meant being alone. Alone is something else I like.

I led him to the first floor of the wing.

"Here we are. You get whichever one you want. Except this one. It's mine." And with that I entered a door further down the hall with my name on it and shut the door behind me.

Ah, blessed solitude. I was beginning to wonder if life would ever grant me this small favor again.

…

Natsume's POV

"Oi," I said to the kid with glasses. He looked up from his lunch at me with a large annoying smile.

"Yes Natsume-kun?" I was already in a bad mood without his annoying cheerfulness. My eyes narrowed at him, causing his smile to become nervous.

"What's up with my partner?"

"Kutan-chan?" No, my_ other _partner. He adopted a thinking face, finally getting rid of the ridiculous one he'd worn before. Said partner was currently missing, so I was eating lunch once again with Ruka and _his _partner, trying to pretend I couldn't hear the whispers all around me.

"No one knows very much about her, really. She got here before most of us." I watched as Ruka began to listen from beside me as well, and I knew Tobita had both of our interest.

"How old was she when she came here?" He interjected.

"A few of us have asked Narumi-sensei, and he said she's been here for five years already. That means she got here when she was six."

"But that's not uncommon, is it?" Ruka continued. Tobita shook his head in response.

"No, we have a lot of children staying in the Elementary dorms. But I heard she was a special star from the start." That didn't have any significance to me seeing as I'd been handed a special star earlier by one of the teachers, and this was only my first day. He sweat dropped, realizing his mistake.

"Usually young students are undetermined stars for a year or two, before their sensei's decide what star they are. And even then they usually only progress to single stars and the occasional double star. So Kutan-chan being a special star right from the start is very unusual."

Speaking of whom, my partner had just entered the cafeteria. Just like the day before she came in near the end, only this time she grabbed just a glass of water and no food. And there was a large bruise on her face. My eyes narrowed at seeing it, but I kept my mouth shut as she took the seat across from me again. Tobita, not so much.

"Kutan-chan, what happened to your face?" She took a long drink from her water, blatantly ignoring him and his concern.

"Oi," I said to her. "Where were you this morning?" She hadn't ever come out of her room this morning and I had to find my way back to the Academy on my own, arriving late to the first class with the substitute teacher who acted as if he was left to substitute more often than not. All in all, I didn't really mind being late. If anything, I would've liked her there to intimidate any brave (stupid) enough to approach me or Ruka despite how clear we made it they weren't welcome. Really the thing that bothered me most were the rumors already spreading through the class.

I don't know how, but somehow word had gotten out about what happened before I came here. No one in our class did anything more than whisper, but I wasn't sure if it would stay that way forever. The whole incident was too fresh on my mind, the loss of my home and family too painful. Some part of me had been hoping I'd be leaving the fire that burned down my life in the past when I came here. Now it was haunting me and I wasn't even through the first full day.

"I had some business to attend to," she answered vaguely. Ruka, ever the over-protective one, hadn't handled her absence nearly as well as I did.

"What sort of business would you have before class?" he snapped.

"We have mixed classes today," she said. "You'll find out soon enough," and though she was answering Ruka's question she was talking to me. Before anyone could ask for an elaboration on her cryptic words the bell signaled the end of lunch.

She quickly drained her glass and stood up, getting out before any of us had even dropped off our trays.

Yeah, there's definitely something weird about that one.

...

Saito stayed through the rest of the classes, surprisingly, but was asleep through them all. I couldn't help but consider the option she presented – since none of the teachers bothered her about it – but decided against it because I was busy elsewhere. Now that she was here the whispers had quietened, the curious looks were more subtle, so I was free to focus on something else for the first time all day.

Through the classes I was thinking; thinking about Aoi and father, and about Saito and the mixed classes she had brought up. I also thought about how she didn't come out of her room this morning, and then reappeared at lunch with a bruise on her face. What was she hiding? What was she doing, or where did she go, that she got hurt? And what did she mean that I'd know soon enough?

She finally woke up when the last bell rang, and there was a dark look in her eyes as she stood up.

"Follow me," she said, and though I didn't like being ordered around I did as I was told, because the dark look in her eyes was almost alarming.

She took me outside and we walked along a trail. After a minute I began to wonder where we were going, and I made it known.

"If you think you can kidnap me, you're wrong." Her gaze slid over to me but she didn't shoot down my comment like I expected. Instead she ignored it like she tends to ignore everything irrelevant to her.

"We have some time before mixed classes, so I thought I'd explain them to you before then." She went back to being quiet. Well I wasn't going to ask outright for an explanation or she'd never give it to me. So I figure I'd pester it out of her.

"You're not doing a very good job at it." This time her eyes narrowed at me, but it had the affect I wanted.

"There are three different kinds of alices," she finally started, "and based on those alices there's a weekly class between all of the grades where a teacher helps the student to learn to control their specific types of alices." The dark look returned to her face as she stopped talking for a moment.

"Then there's another mixed class, the Dangerous Ability class, that takes any alices deemed dangerous and we're trained to hone our abilities. To completely master them, so we can use them to do anything we need. Any alice types are taken into the Dangerous Class. And you're one of them."

I let her words process, trying to get in all of their implications.

"The other types are taught to control their alices," I clarified. She didn't deny it, so I took it as an affirmative. "But we're taught to master them." Again, nothing. "Why?"

"For our missions." Before I could snark that I didn't have a clue what she meant she continued. "I'm a member of the Dangerous Class as well, so that's what I was doing last night. Every member of the Dangerous Ability Class gets sent on missions by the Academy through Persona." Her eyes slid over to me again and we stopped walking. "We're used to do the Academy's dirty work.

"The Dangerous class isn't a well-known thing. We're all kept secret so we don't exist. I don't exist, you don't exist. None of exist, so we're ghosts, and who better for the Academy to get rid of problems? No one can touch ghosts. We're the ultimate weapons."

My eyes widened in surprise. So that's why they wanted me; they wanted a new weapon. I looked down at my hand where fire could materialize at my command and I could feel her eyes on me.

"Usually new students are given some time to settle into academy, build some roots, meet their normal mixed classes. Sometimes it takes years before an alice is deemed Dangerous. But for some reason you don't get that luxury. Seems like you're getting thrown in right away."

I knew exactly why they weren't giving me any time to adjust. It's because my family succeeded in running from them for so long, because my alice was easy to utilize as a weapon, and because they had Aoi. They knew I would do anything to keep her safe, so they could use me however they wanted. I clenched my hand into a fist and narrowed my eyes. I hate being used. Saito read my expression when I looked up again.

"Get used to it." Then she began walking again. "Come on, Hyuuga. It's time to meet your new family."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Gakuen Alice. Only OCs and my plot.**

[o]

Chapter 3

Saito led me to a part of the school that looked like it hadn't been used in years, and judging by her explanation on how this class was kept secret, I figured that it really hadn't been used in that long. Inside the room she led me to were half a dozen people of varying ages. Despite already knowing we were, a quick scan around confirmed that we were the youngest at eleven.

"This is about half of us, including you and me. The rest are out on missions." I looked around the room, thankful for my long bangs to hide behind as I felt others' gazes on me as well.

"Who teaches this class?" I asked as we took a place against the far wall. There were rows of chairs set up in the room but I followed her to the wall, figuring it was best to stay with a relatively-familiar person while surrounded by dangerous strangers.

"We call him Persona. Don't talk to him unless he talks to you first, don't do anything that could upset him. Pretty much, try to be invisible. It's the best way to go through this class." This was all muttered, and I knew it was meant for only my ears. My eyes narrowed at the name as soon as she spoke it, recognizing it as the name of one of the people who had taken me and Ruka to the Academy. The one who took Aoi.

A few more minutes passed and eventually quiet murmurs filled the room, but they were all hushed as the door opened again.

I saw Saito straighten off of the wall as who I assumed was the teacher walked in. Even as chills went through me I couldn't help myself start up the familiar debate on whether this person was male or female. Maybe he's a cross-dresser like Narumi-sensei? Or just a female with a slightly masculine look?

Despite the odd taste in style, the most defining feature of this person was the spiky black hair framing a white half-mask on their face, further hiding their identity, which I remembered well. My eyes narrowed further.

I itched to ask Saito the sensei's gender to distract myself from the images of fire he was causing to flash through my mind but knew by the chills racing up and down my spine that drawing attention to myself right now would be unwise. I felt myself relax when Persona turned and took a seat in the desk in front of all of us, calling for any mission reports.

I was surprised when Saito didn't budge from her spot, now glaring very noticeably at the person in front.

"Don't you have to turn in a mission report?" Because she said she'd been on a mission this morning. Unless she'd been lying.

"No, I already gave him my report." She didn't elaborate any more. Once everyone settled back into their places – a small stack of manila folders now on the desk in front of Persona – he then called for training reports from the assigned 'mentors'.

"You'll get a mentor, too," Saito explained quietly from beside me. "Your mentor will help you adjust to this life, as well as be your training coach while you prepare for missions."

There was silence for a while as Persona flipped through pages, making the occasional disapproving sound. Just as the silence was getting to the point of painful Persona broke it once again.

"Takahashi and Ito, wait outside the door for me. Saito and Hyuuga, stay here. The rest of you are dismissed." My blood froze when hearing my name and I felt Saito stiffen next to me. I watched through lowered eyes as everyone else filed out, studying them all and keeping a slight glare in place for whenever they glanced over in curiosity. Before long we were alone, and as two boys dutifully took their spots outside to wait their turn the door slid closed with a quiet _snap_.

"Kokutan, Natsume, come here." I noticed how he switched to our first names and couldn't help but think that coming from him it was nothing but a power-play.

We stopped in front of his desk and he stood up, making his way over so he was standing in front of us.

"Hello Natsume." I narrowed my eyes at him, wanting to demand where my sister was, but his attention shifted from me quickly. "Kokutan, you really should get your face taken care of. It might swell." Her eyes narrowed to match mine, the bruise now much darker than earlier and starkly visible against her pale skin.

"What do you want?" she spat, and though Persona's eyes were covered I was sure they had narrowed in return.

"You're just as impertinent as ever. I can see your punishment is being ineffective, as usual." Her gaze didn't falter, but I felt confusion build in me. Punishment? What punishment?

"No matter," Persona sniffed, turning to me once again. "Natsume, I hope your time here has been pleasant so far. I heard from the others that you and Kokutan have been placed as partners in your other classes." I didn't answer. "This works perfectly, as she will also take up the role as your mentor in the Dangerous Abilities class. The two of you share many important traits, and great things may come from the two of you working together." My confusion only grew and I shot a look at the glaring girl beside me. What on earth did we have in common? Then Persona's semi-threatening aura turned icy and a shiver made its way slowly down my spine.

"And if you disobey orders, do anything less than par, and don't visibly progress in your training, I will be sure to pay your dear friend and sister a visit." I grit my teeth, biting back insults. Fear began gnawing itself in the pit of my belly as what he said sunk in and made me realize just how much bigger this was than me. Now, if I don't do my best others could be hurt. He could hurt those I care about.

"Bastard," a voice spat from beside me, and I whirled to Saito with wide eyes. Wasn't she afraid that he'd go after the people she cares about? Persona whirled to her as well, lips pinched in a frown, but he didn't make any threats like I expected him to.

"Perhaps I should extend your punishment. Maybe that'll incline you to _hold your tongue." _Her expression of hate didn't change at all and after a moment Persona relaxed again.

"Kokutan, report to me after showing your partner around. I have another mission for you and will think until then on how much to lengthen your punishment. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have business to attend to. Send in Takashi and Ito on your way out." Saito sent him one last withering look then turned on her heel and left calmly, as if none of this had ever happened. Though I noted her chin was pulled up slightly in defiance. I followed quickly.

"He wants you," was all she said to the two still waiting outside the door. They went in after us and shut the door once again. Only then did I feel like I could breathe normally again.

"What was that?" was all I could ask. She continued walking but slid her eyes over to me as I leveled out with her

"That, Hyuuga, is your new life."

…

Unlike Saito's tour yesterday, she actually carried this one through. I wondered if it was because it was Persona telling her this time, or if she just wanted to delay meeting up with him as long as possible.

As we walked down a long hall the air was thick with questions, and I was the first to breach it.

"Is Persona a girl or a boy?" She had expected questions, but this didn't appear to be one of them. Her eyebrows raised and then she began chuckling. I narrowed my eyes, wondering what was so funny. She calmed quickly and we turned a corner.

"That's actually a common concern with new-comers, but they're usually too scared to ask. Well, to answer your question, Persona's very much a male." She slid a door open, switching the light on to reveal a large room and began the tour without further ado.

"This is the gym we'll be training in everyday here-on-out. There are a few gyms for us to use, but this one's my favorite. And since I'm your mentor, you don't really get any say-so." I shot her a look, but she had already shut the light off and exited. I glanced through the door as she shut it and continued on as I reluctantly trailed after her.

"You're not going to let me look around the gym?" Some tour this is. She lifted an eyebrow.

"What's the point? You'll know every part of that gym by next week. No need to spend any more time in there than necessary."

She showed me two more gyms. One was unoccupied like the first she had shown me, but the other one had a few people in there that I recognized vaguely from the class not long ago. Saito explained that this is the general gym, where everyone goes to train. When more people are back from missions they expand to that second gym (there aren't enough people in the class to ever expand to 'her' gym) but that rarely happens.

"So if I'm ever unavailable and you need to train, you can probably find someone to help you in here." After that she showed me a few supply rooms where they kept equipment and weapons for training. With that the tour was over and she was leading me back to the dorms.

"There are more rooms, but you don't need to know where those are until you're ready for your own missions. On a different note, there aren't any more regular classes today so you're now free to do whatever." Good. I needed to talk to Ruka about all of the new developments. And explore the school to find places where Persona might be keeping Aoi. Maybe he had enrolled her in the school as well?

Saito raised an eyebrow, no doubt at my expression, but she didn't address it. With that she turned on her heel to go back the way we came.

"Later," she raised a hand. I didn't return her farewell and instead turned to enter the dorm building. Ruka had told me earlier in class where his room was, and I made my way there.

The room I came to was pitiful next to my special start rooms. Yes, plural. Mine was like a small house while Ruka's undetermined star room was an average boring room, with only a bed, dresser, and small desk. I remembered Persona's threat toward Ruka and Aoi – anger growing in me at the memory – and figured I could probably get away with making a few demands of my own. I'm the reason Ruka's here, and Persona's the reason I'm here, so it's only fair that both of us live in comfort.

A jab went through me when I thought of how Aoi was living. I'd have to make sure he kept her comfortable, too.

The two of us sat on the floor, leaning against his bed, and now that I was alone for the first time with my only friend since getting here I felt the weight of the world settle on my shoulders. I told him about the Dangerous Class, about Persona and the threat made towards him and Aoi. The fear I'd originally felt at his threat grew up in me once again, but I kept it hidden. He was already aware of the rumors already being spread, and the muttered insults and angry looks from the few upper-classmen visiting siblings or friends in the elementary division. He knew that I had hoped to leave the past where it belongs. He knew how much that fire had cost us. How much it had cost me.

He stood up at some point while I spoke and began pacing. When I finished he stopped and turned towards me, but I kept my gaze down. I didn't know what to say to him, and I didn't want him to say anything, either, so we just stayed like that. We were both silent, but my thoughts were raging.

Things used to be good. I'd made a friend, my family was together and nearly healed since mom's death, and we had settled down in another place where no one knew about our alices. And then in a split moment everything had changed. Things had gone from good to bad in the blink of an eye, and I was powerless to do anything about it.

I'd never felt so helpless.

…

I didn't see Saito again until late the next day. Just like yesterday she didn't come out of her room this morning but this time she didn't show up at all, even at lunch. One of the loud-mouthed middle-schoolers had searched me out at one point, somehow hearing the spreading rumors even there and warned me against being a 'bad influence' on their younger sibling. Once he began threatening me I snapped. He left with only half a head of hair, and some minor burn marks. It would've been nice if Saito had been there to scare the upperclassman away but I could take care of myself, as I'd clearly demonstrated. Hopefully no one else would try threatening me now that I they know I'm not using my mentor as a bodyguard. I had gone to my room, looking at the pile of homework on my desk and debating on actually doing it or not when a knock sounded on my door.

Saito walked in without waiting for an answer, and I narrowed my eyes at her. I'd have to make sure to lock my door from now on. The bruise on her cheek had gotten darker, but she must've put something on it for the swelling because it had gone back down to its normal size. Instead of her uniform she was dressed in sweats and a light sweater over a white T-shirt, and she held her left arm to herself – as if protecting it – while holding the door open with her free hand.

"Time to train."

We went back to the empty gym and she switched the lights on once again. I gazed around the room this time in more detail, noting the lack of windows to keep anyone from accidentally catch a glimpse of kids training. Aside from that there wasn't anything that stood out about the otherwise standard gym. I wondered what kind of training she was talking about, since she hadn't said much about the missions that I'd be going on someday. My mouth just about dropped when she emerged from one of the equipment closets with two yoga mats.

"What does yoga have to do with training?" She unfurled her own on the ground, moving her left arm experimentally, and I reluctantly followed her lead as I realized this wasn't a joke. She took her light sweater off and tossed it to the side, showing that her elbow was red and slightly swollen.

"Flexibility. If you can't move quickly and without resistance, you'll be out in a second. You can forget all about Persona's threat because as soon as you go on your first mission you won't come back. Muscle as well. Yoga builds a lot of vital muscles that your other training will hardly touch up on."

She sat down on her mat facing me with her legs spread out wide and I tried to imitate her as she leaned over and grabbed her left toes with both hands easily, wincing a little at moving her injured arm.

"And besides, yoga's a lot harder than people give it credit for."

After a few moments of silence, doing nothing but switch to the next leg, her gaze came to rest on me.

"I heard you used your alice on another student." Of course she did. Is she going to yell at me and say I was wrong to teach him his place? At my narrowed eyes she rolled her own.

"I don't care if you use your alice on others or not. I just want to know what triggered it." She switched to the other leg again, and I followed suit. Well since it didn't seem like she was mad or trying to reprimand me in any way, I figured it couldn't hurt.

"He told me to stay away from his sister, not that I care, and that I was a bad influence. Then he started threatening me with his alice if anything did happen. So I figured I'd show him I'm in the Dangerous Class for a reason."

"Does this have to do with those rumors that have started up about you?" I looked away sharply, focusing on the foot I was currently holding onto. She took that as confirmation.

"I don't really care what you do with your alice, Hyuuga, or anything that you might've done before you came here. But you can't let what others say get to you too much. You're going to go through a lot while you're here, and it's never going to get easier. If your way of dealing with them is using your alice on them, whatever. But don't let what they say weigh you down along with everything else."

I frowned as I thought about her words. They made sense, and I knew with everything else I'd be facing soon I couldn't afford to care what they thought. It would take some practice, but I knew I'd manage it. I glanced at the girl who'd known exactly what to say only to realize she was switching forms and followed suit.

At first I had scoffed at her for suggesting yoga could be anything but easy. I didn't find it so amusing that night while I was taking a cold shower like Saito had instructed, to help with the soreness I'd feel in the morning. And boy did I feel it in the morning. The two of us did nothing but stretches for at least a couple hours last night, and I couldn't help but feel irritated at how she was moving just as easily at the end as she had been at the beginning, while I'd pretty much wobbled to the dorms. Sleep did nothing to help, and I felt even worse now than I did last night.

As we walked from the dorm building Ruka kept shooting me concerned glances, but I ignored them because darn it all I'm_ fine. _Just the same I couldn't help but shoot Saito scathing looks because she didn't seem any worse for wear.

But while we endured homeroom I couldn't help but let my eyes settle on her hands. She didn't seem any worse for wear, but her hands were visibly shaking, and I didn't think it had anything to do with the yoga last night.

Once again, after classes were finished that day we went to the gym to work out. I resisted telling Saito that there was no way on earth I'd be able to do yoga again, but it turned out I didn't need to tell her anyway.

She pulled two soft square pillow-cushions from a pile in one of the closets and handed one to me. She set hers down in middle of the floor and I followed her.

"Today we'll be meditating." I held back a comment on how this was just about as useless as yoga, but my sore muscles reminded me that as far as I'm concerned meditating would end up being just as painful.

She crossed her legs and rested her hands on her knees, closing her eyes. I copied her, having set my cushion next to hers. She began to speak and I was relieved to hear that there wasn't any apparent physical exertion involved.

"Meditation is about gaining control over your head. You can train your body all you want, but unless you have control over your head, thoughts, and emotions, you don't have control over anything." It was silent for a moment, and my thoughts immediately began to stray to different topics. The darkness behind my eyelids kept growing deeper, and I itched to open my eyes. I was distracted when she began talking again.

"For now just focus on training your thoughts. Thoughts are a person's greatest weakness. They cause hesitation, reconsideration, and distraction. On a mission you can't afford to have any of these things, so you must learn to take all thoughts not related to the objective, tie them up, and shove them into a corner of your mind where they can shrivel up and die." My eyebrows lifted in slight amusement at her words, and I couldn't help but go off on my own thought tangent which sprung from the mental image she set.

Something hit the back of my head sharply and I sprang up, eyes flying open to find Saito with one hand resting on the ground and an eyebrow arched.

"Like that. I gave you a lead and you immediately took it. You have to ignore anything and everything and only give attention to the important things, which, right now, is only my voice. Only then will you have control over your thoughts." I relaxed from my guarded pose – sore muscles screaming at me – and sat back down, glaring at her the whole time. She had already gone back to her meditation pose, so it didn't do anything. Felt good, though. After another moment of silence emphasized by the dark beneath my eyelids something occurred to me.

"How did you know I had started thinking anyway?" Can she read minds now, too, or something? A sigh came from her.

"Talking is considered thinking, Hyuuga. And besides, I was bluffing. It's a standard trick that I'll use a lot on you. So don't fall for it again." After that I doubled my effort.

By the time we stopped for a break my brain felt like jell-o, and I hadn't made any progress. Every time I thought that I was doing it right, my thoughts would wander away without my permission. And it irritated me.

Saito took a deep drink of water and I watched how she was still shaking. Her left arm had a white bandage wrapped around her elbow now, strategically so she could still bend it marginally, and the bruise on her face was beginning to yellow at the edges to show it was healing. I didn't realize she had stopped drinking her water until she began speaking, bringing me back from wherever my exhausted mind had wandered.

"Why don't you just take a picture?" she mocked my statement from what seemed like years ago. I opened my mouth to retort, but what came out was a question instead.

"What was Persona talking about when he mentioned your punishment?" Could it be that Persona was the one who had hurt her? She seemed to read my mind again.

"He didn't do this to me, if that's what you're wondering." I was relieved. If Persona was hurting Saito, who knows what he'd do to Aoi. After another moment of awkward silence she finally sighed and began fiddling with her bottle cap.

"It's difficult to keep a bunch of dangerously-enhanced children under your control all the time, making them do things that they'd rather not do. Persona knows this and his way of keeping everyone under his thumb is to hold something over them. Just like he threatened you with your friend and sister, he threatens everyone with whatever's dear to them."

"What does he hold over you?" She stopped messing with the cap and screwed it back onto the bottle.

"That's the problem. He doesn't have anything on me, so he uses punishments instead. That's what he was talking about. After the mission before last I was forbidden to eat." My eyes widened and my fear for Aoi came back full-force. What if he's not letting her eat? Or maybe that's what he'll do if I disobey. I suddenly felt sick and tried to drag myself back from those thoughts.

"That's why you've been shaking." It wasn't really a question, but it easily could've been. She didn't answer either way and instead put down her bottle before standing up. I took another quick sip and followed her back to the cushions. My head was aching at the thought of more time trying to meditate, but to my surprise she grabbed the cushions and put them back where they belong, coming back with the yoga mats from yesterday. My heart fell while my brain just about melted with relief.

She handed one to me.

"I doubt you'll be able to concentrate enough to meditate after our conversation." I grudgingly agreed – though I didn't tell her that – and instead held my mat.

"I'm still sore from yesterday." She snorted, standing on her mat and raising her arms above her head.

"And you're going to continue being sore for a _very _long time. Now stop whining. We're working out different muscles today anyway."


	4. Chapter 4

**Read at your own risk****: What did you think would come next? I considered adding how she figured that out but realized I don't have any clue how she stumbled on that information. **

Exploring a bit into the life of Saito, and for those already familiar with the chapter there aren't many changes to report.

**Disclaimer: Still don't own anything you recognize, but it's only a matter of time.**

[o]

Chapter 4

Weeks passed since Hyuuga was enrolled, and I was secretly proud of the progress he was making in his training. He was now taking on more than just the basics, and was moving quickly. Him being my very first mentee and all, I gotta say, I'm good at this. Especially considering that my own mentor had been Persona himself, and he's not the type of mentor one wants to look up to or emulate. Said creeper had shown up a few times to see how we were doing in Hyuuga's training and the anger coming off of Hyuuga during those sessions was almost tangible. He wasn't dealing with Persona's chosen method of blackmail very well, as it turns out.

Not long after he got here he had demanded from Persona that Nogi get better living accommodations, as well as his sister, wherever she is. Persona had easily agreed but made it clear that if Hyuuga ever does anything unsatisfactory everything would be taken away from them, and they'd be left with the worst of the worst. The big sadistic jerk.

We were currently in homeroom – baka-sensei had just left us with the substitute again – and I was surprised at the fanclub that was building for Hyuuga and Nogi. Considering their cold demeanors and unwelcome attitudes I thought they'd be ignored for the best part, maybe even outcasted a little. Especially with the rumors floating around about the crimson-eyed Alice and his growing reputation for attacking upper-classmen. Surprisingly, the last one is actually where they were getting the attention from. Apparently it painted him as some sort of rebel and Nogi as his blonde sidekick. Bunch of bull, all of it.

Just the same, they didn't acknowledge anyone and most advances were met with a blunt refusal or upright ignored. Hard to please, them.

Hyuuga sat beside me asleep underneath a comic book with his feet up on the desk. He had his arms pulled up behind him, and I eyed his protruding elbow warily. Many a time had that thing whapped me upside the head, and I'd learned to punch him a good one if it looked like I was going to get hit again. But for the moment it seemed safe. Just the same I had my elbow propped up to jab him if that changed.

I suppose I've set a bad example, but who can blame me? I'm often exhausted after Hyuuga's training, my training, and the more and more frequent missions, on top of whatever pathetic punishment Persona's seen fit to give me. He should be flattered I sit through homeroom with him anyway.

Oh wait, no I don't. I usually leave half-way through. And show up sporadically throughout the rest of the school day (they think it's sporadic. I just show up for whichever teachers seem worthwhile that day. Jinno's usually among them, since I love to see him scare people witless). My eyes drifted to the side where the blonde sidekick sat next to his friend since the substitute didn't much care if he sat with his partner or not.

Well, no need to keep the torture up to Jinno-sensei.

"Ru~chan," I sang to the now aggravated Nogi. "You're boyfriend's sleeping on me again. Come defend your honor." His face turned bright red, but it wasn't because he was embarrassed. No, the embarrassment he used to feel at my teasing wore off a long time ago. Now it's from anger. Ru-chan doesn't like me very much, and I can't say the feelings mutual. No, I like Nogi very much. He's a very entertaining toy.

"I told you to stop calling me that! And he's not my boyfriend!" Though Nogi was sitting on Hyuuga's other side, he still usually sat further up next to Tobita. I figured that once Tobita and I are no longer the boys' partners Hyuuga would leave me to sit with Nogi. The thought sent a pang through my heart that I didn't care to identify as being lonely, because such things are trivial to me. Or at least that's what I kept telling myself.

"But Ru~chan," I sang once again, making his eye twitch. "Whoever said I meant he was your _boy_friend and not just your boy_ friend_?" His face slowly went back to its original color and an odd look grew on his face and he let his head hang toward the ground for a few moments. I wondered bemusedly if I had just earned the right to be ignored as well, but then his head snapped up.

"I don't have any other friends! You wouldn't need to specify!" I smirked down at him and his rapidly re-coloring face.

"Well putting it that way, perhaps you torment yourself enough without my help." Not that I'm one to say anything; I don't have any friends. And that's how I like it.

A sigh came from beside me and Hyuuga took the book off his face – I quickly avoided his elbow – and sat up.

"You guys are too loud." Nogi looked abashed, but I raised my eyebrow, not sorry at all for disturbing his beauty sleep. A shout then sounded from further up and I turned my head back to see what the commotion was. Seems our two Telekinesis Alices were playing catch with a couple of their classmates. As in the classmates were being thrown back and forth through the air. With that the substitute had lost all vestiges of control and went to sulk in his corner. Well, that's my cue. I stood up.

"As nice as it's been to talk with you, Ru-chan, it's time to say goodbye. Take care of your boyfriend for me." I shut the door on his shouted retorts and immediately rested my back on the closed door behind me. I took a deep breath and felt a jab in my rib area. The guy last night had a mean right-hook, and my ribs could attest to that. Just the same, I had a meaner trick up my sleeve and left him screaming on the ground, trying to get away from something only we could see. If he survived he'll no doubt be visiting a shrink for quite a while.

I figured I'd stop at the infirmary quickly before going back to class. I needed to renew my stack of pain pills anyway, and what's getting my injuries checked out in the process going to hurt?

I began the familiar trek to the white hospital building and walked past the attendant – who had learned with enough time just not to mess with me – and entered my favorite check-up room. It was ground level, right next to the exit, and had a large window leading right to the forest. In other words, plenty of escape routes. Plus it was usually manned by my favorite nurse and doctor.

Luckily, the room was unoccupied so I didn't need to threaten anyone out. The nurse was there quickly, no doubt having been warned of my presence by the desk attendant.

"Kokutan-chan, nice to see you." It's not like it had been long since my last visit. "You need the usual?" I nodded, taking a seat on the table and laid down on my back as she began her examination.

"Anything in particular today?" I shook my head, looking up at the ceiling with its fluorescent light doing its pitiful best to blind me.

"Same injuries as last week, plus something going on with my ribs." She began prodding me and when she reached my side I winced in pain.

"Do you mind…?" She asked and I didn't, pulling myself up so I could remove my shirt. I was shocked when it revealed harsh black and purple bruising and peeling skin covering a large portion of my left side. I blinked in surprise, looking down at it. How had I not noticed that while changing this morning? Oh that's right, I didn't change this morning. I collapsed in bed in my uniform after my mission late last night (or rather very early morning) and barely had time to make it to class by the time I managed to wake up. It's a surprise Hyuuga was the one sleeping in class and not me.

"Oh Kokutan, what happened?" It's not like she hadn't seen me with bruised ribs before. I looked back down and winced. True, this time they did seem a bit worse than usual.

"Just the usual. Got punched. The guy may or may not have had some rather impressive looking brass-knuckles on." I did a one-shoulder shrug, not wanting to hurt that side any more than it already was. Something sad passed through her eyes, but then she was ushering me to sit up. I swallowed a pain pill quickly and then she wrapped copious amounts of bandage around my chest to protect my ribs and keep them from being damaged further. Not that it would do much if I got nailed with more brass knuckles. Hopefully I wouldn't be going on any more missions for a while, though Persona's really been piling them up on me lately. I'd talk to him about it later.

No doubt it was because we were a bit short-staffed from a mission-gone-wrong, leaving quite a few of the Dangerous students imprisoned in the infirmary. But seriously, with the work I was taking on the others in the class probably didn't even realize the shortage in staff. I huffed, ignoring the twinge it caused.

After she finished wrapping the bandage I pulled my shirt on while she pulled down my sock to check on a gash I had on my calf there. She'd treated it last week and I'd made sure to clean it regularly since then, so it was healing nicely. She replaced the bandage and pulled the sock back up. The rest of my bumps and bruises had healed, and the newly acquired bumps and bruises were only skimmed over; nothing too bad.

She left the room after looking at everything to meet with the doctor quickly, and in a surprisingly short amount of time came back with a small bag in her hand. I reached over and took it from her, inspecting the insides.

My eyebrows lifted in surprise and I looked at the nurse for explanation. She smiled, putting her hands behind her back.

"I talked to the doctor after he reduced your prescription and he brought it back up to what it was." I looked at the bottles and packets in the bag. That's nice. It means I wouldn't have to either come back to the infirmary so often to replenish these or, what I was more prone to doing, just deal with the pain without them.

"Thanks," I said shortly, then stood up. Rather than letting me through she took a quick step to the side, blocking my passage through the door just enough that I knew she had something to say.

"Kokutan-chan, Persona's pushing you too hard. He of all people should know the affects having you use your Alice so often will have on your-"

I shouldered past her, getting out of the room before she could finish speaking. There was a reason she was my favorite nurse, and the reason was not because she liked to butt into my business. In fact, it was the total opposite of that. I like her and the doctor she usually comes with because they know when to stop pushing it and get their noses out of where they don't belong. Though I suppose having their particular Alice set around was an added bonus. The doctor's Alice was Metal Manipulation, which had saved me from many a surgery in the past. Nasty things, bullets.

I left the building and made my way over to the dorms. I wouldn't be needing one of the pills currently, since the nurse had already given me one for my ribs, but there was no doubt about me needing them later. All of my excessive work would come back to bite me eventually.

I put the bag on my nightstand, stood there for a second, then sighed and collapsed on my ridiculously large bed. A pillow was immediately hugged to my bruised chest as I determined my next course of action, because whether I wanted to acknowledge it or not the nurse was right. These missions were taking their toll on me, and the bag of painkillers on my nightstand was proof of the affect the frequent use of my Alice was taking on my body.

So, talk to Persona about how ridiculous he's being I would. Doesn't mean I have to like it. Talking to the jerk always brings my mood to rock bottom, and more often than not I end up sassing him (or full-out disrespecting him) and end up with a punishment for the next few days. Not that I particularly minded. My situation was definitely preferable to the one Hyuuga was in currently.

I sighed heavily and pushed myself back up to my feet, snatching a pear from my kitchen quickly before making my way over to where Persona was most likely to be hanging around. I hadn't gotten a chance to eat breakfast this morning and lunch was still a few hours away, so I figured I'd eat while I had the chance.

Persona was where I had expected him to be, thankfully, since I really had no idea where the guy's office or rooms were (not that I wanted to find out), and I stood beside him watching a few students train in the gym. After a moment I figured I had let my presence linger long enough.

"You're giving me too many assignments." He was quiet, and I watched one of the older students pummel a dummy with his fists, occasionally taking swipes with his legs.

"Are you saying I should give them more assignments?" Sometimes I wondered if he actually knew me. Guilt tactics don't work.

"Yes." His painted lips pulled up, since he did in fact know me and had predicted my answer. He didn't say anything more, so I continued as respectfully as I could without actually respecting the guy. I'd like to keep from receiving a punishment if at all possible, thank you very much. "I've seen a few of their schedules; they could easily take on some of the work you've been giving me."

"Is something the matter?" He knew full well what's wrong.

"Yes. In case you've forgotten, my Alice is eating my body." And there's the sass. I quickly added onto my statement before he could add anything onto it for me, figuring that since the sass had come out it may as well stay out. "You wouldn't want to lose me any sooner than you have to, would you? And here I was thinking I was valuable to you." I could all but see his eyebrow arch behind his white mask, but I continued to watch the training students. There was a moment of tense silence between us, filled only by the sounds of training, but it passed quickly.

"I'll see what I can do," was all he said, but that was as close to an affirmative as I'd get. Perfect. I turned around and walked back to the door. "See you in class, my little Mara*." I shuddered at his pet name, but shut the door behind me without saying a word and went back to the Elementary building.

He had started calling me that after deciding on my pseudonym – Akumu – which meant nightmare. Going off of that Mara was Germanic folklore, an evil spirit that gives nightmares, both relating back to my awful Alice. As I walked back down the dirt path I held my hand in front of me, staring at my palm. Such an innocent, normal looking thing could create such destructive power if I wanted it to.

I continued staring at my palm, slowing my walk to a stop, and as I watched tendrils of black mist spread from it. My Alice was a dark thing. Something that could taint souls and ruin lives. It was a nightmare.

I shut my fist abruptly, cutting off the mist, and hurried my walk again. Jinno-sensei taught next, and his were my favorite lessons since there was some vestige of order, so I didn't want to be late for it (plus there was always some level of amusement in watching the idiot who wasn't sitting in his seat when Jinno-sensei showed up get electrocuted by the impatient man. True, I'd been on the end of that zap my fair share of times, but it was still amusing to watch).

I sat down just as Jinno-sensei came in and grabbed the notebook I always kept packed away in my desk to begin taking notes.

Hyuuga asked once why I only take notes in some of the classes and I explained that some people are idiots and will pay many rabbits for good notes when exams come around. Sure, there aren't many customers, but the ones I have are regulars. Because if there's any constant in life, it's that there will always be idiots around.

[o]

*I put one site with this mentioned on my profile. Otherwise you can find more on it by looking up 'German Folklore, Mara' and all sorts of things come up.


	5. Chapter 5

Just a heads up, I combined the original chapters 5 and 6, since they were really short before.

**Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue.**

[o]

Chapter 5

Natsume's POV

"It's still wrong," came a snappy voice from behind me. Saito was in a bad mood today and she was taking it out on me. I was very tempted to try out some of my new Alice techniques on her just to shut her up, but the worry of her own Alice kept me in check. The girl in question stepped forward and hit the dummy in a series of movements.

"If you stop inside his range without disabling him first you'd be out with a solid punch, or dead if he has a knife. You have a brain, use it." I clenched my fists even further and bit my tongue to keep from snapping at her. It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't the tenth time she's said it.

I did it _exactly _how she had done it, but still heard the dreaded sigh from behind me

"Now you're being sloppy." Finally, something inside me snapped. I walked away from the dummy, panting, and grabbed my water bottle.

"What are you doing?" She had stayed where she was, and knew perfectly well what I was doing.

"I'm taking a break until you're ready to be a mentor again." She turned to face me with narrowed eyes.

"Well perhaps when you're done pouting you can come back and actually get it right this time." My eye twitched. I recapped my bottle and walked to the door.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." I shut the door before she could say anything. No way was I going to be her punching bag. If she wanted to relieve stress she was welcome to do that on her own.

I had made it a decent way down the trail when I heard quick footsteps crunching the small rocks of the trail behind me. At the sound I rolled my eyes I turned, stuffing my hands in my pockets and wondering if she was going to try to force me to go back, but was surprised when she stopped with an almost guilty frown on her face.

"I didn't mean any of that," she began, meeting my gaze fully. "I've just been in a bad mood." Her eyes abruptly slammed to the ground, causing mine to widen in surprise. Surely she wasn't…

She bent into a slight bow. "I'm sorry. If you give me another chance I'll do better this time."

…She was.

I shuffled uncomfortably. Apologies from Saito were unheard of, from what Ruka and I had been told. Not knowing how to react or if I was supposed to say anything in response to her abrupt apology, I instead turned and started back in the direction we came from.

"Well, are you coming?" Her footsteps caught up to mine and soon we were walking side-by-side.

"Why are you in a bad mood anyway?" Her frown deepened and she let out a heavy sigh.

"It's Persona. He keeps getting under my skin." So this was about yesterday. During the Dangerous Class Persona had announced that everyone would have increased missions until everyone in the hospital had recovered. Apparently Saito had asked the day before for him to reduce her load. It had resulted in many glares her way and no doubt their resentment towards her would last a while.

I wasn't sure if I was the only one to notice just how many missions were taken from her load. From the amount that was shared around the group she no doubt had reason to complain to Persona.

I had also noticed more frequent injuries appearing on her. They appeared faster than she could heal, and it was a wonder she had been able to stand so many missions in the first place. No wonder she was in a bad mood.

But I didn't say any of this and once we reached the gym again we continued training until the sun had dipped below the horizon. True to her word she was much more tolerable this time and rather than training on a dummy she faced me herself, calling out my mistakes as I made them so I could quickly fix them until both of us were panting with a good amount of bruising and promised soreness for me in the morning.

I left her like usual to do her own training, wondering where she ever managed to fit sleep into her schedule, but not really caring enough to ask.

The threat of my own missions was looming ever closer. Saito said that mentees are given close to six months of training before they begin on simpler missions, though still accompanied by their mentor, and I'd been in the Dangerous Class for close to a month now. I shivered in anticipation and worry.

Sometimes when Saito returned from missions there was a darkness in her eyes. A darkness that can eat someone whole. It never stayed long, but I wondered what was out there that could cause such a look on someone, and when I'd have to experience it for myself. It wasn't something I was looking forward to.

The next day Saito actually came out of her room, looking more rested than she had in a while. Getting a break from the constant missions was already doing her good.

When we made it to homeroom Ruka slid into the seat next to me, leaving Tobita in their usual spot. I didn't doubt that Ruka would come sit in the back with us, but Tobita seemed anxious around Saito – the glares she was always sending at people probably didn't help with that – and since Tobita was Ruka's partner he had to sit with him for now.

Ruka sighed, slouching over slightly as he rested his elbows on the table. I kicked my feet up, the dreaded soreness ever-present, and Saito rolled her eyes at him.

"It's not for long. As soon as baka-sensei thinks you guys are familiar enough with things you 'll be free to spend all your free time with each other." I closed my eyes, waiting for the jab, and was not disappointed. "You know, like a normal couple." And there it was.

Surprisingly, Ruka didn't react to her ruse like usual, only sending a brief glare her way before bringing them down again. After a moment Saito's eyebrows lifted slightly and she leaned forward in her seat to see him better.

"Did I break you? Or are you just really upset? I can't tell. Boy drama is completely beyond me." By now I was looking at Ruka in concern, too. He ignored me as well and just sighed even deeper than before. It was like he wasn't aware of us at all.

"Hyuuga," Saito whispered. "He's your friend. Fix him." I shot her a look but otherwise ignored her.

"Oi, Ruka." When he didn't answer I jabbed him in the arm. "Oi." He quickly straightened in surprise, only now noticing me.

"Oh, Natsume." His eyes narrowed to look past me. "For a second I thought you were Saito." But even that was only half-hearted.

"What's wrong?" He seemed surprised by my straight-forward answer – honestly, he's had long enough to get used to it – and leaned forward again. For a moment I thought he wouldn't answer.

"I miss home," he said so quietly I almost didn't hear. Saito began to get comfortable again, no longer worried.

"Homesickness will pass quickly. As soon as you realize you don't have any choice other than staying here it gets easy." We both ignored her, because she had no idea what Ruka was talking about. I felt the ache, too. The ache for how things had been before the Academy. Before the accident.

I brought my legs down and sat up straight, feeling my eyes soften towards my only friend and he looked back up at me at the movement. I understood, he knows that.

"Me too." I missed father and Aoi. Even the kidnappers Ruka had to watch out for were preferable to this. There wasn't any getting out of this; we had already been caught, and they weren't going to let us go.

I had already told him about the Dangerous Ability Class and the training I had to do each day. I told him of the missions I'd have to do someday, and that they're the reason Saito doesn't come to class sometimes. What I hadn't told him yet was Persona's growing threats against him and Aoi, or the darkness in Saito's eyes that I was afraid would eventually grow in mine.

Baka-sensei – as I'd picked up from Saito – entered the room, announcing something or other, and I put my feet back on the table as Ruka left to sit with Tobita.

Saito was leaning her head on a hand propped up on the desk, regarding me with those abysmal purple eyes of hers that were really too deep for someone our age, and a question popped up in my mind regarding her comment earlier.

Had her homesickness passed quickly?

…

I left Saito to go to lunch on her own, instead joining Ruka and his partner who stayed in the classroom a bit longer to put their books away. I waited until she was out and then some to make sure she didn't come back, then turned to Tobita fully so he couldn't ignore me.

"What's up with Saito?" It was only after asking him that I realized I had phrased it the same as the last time I'd asked about her, not elaborating at all about my new concerns.

"I told you, not a lot is-" I cut him off before he could give me the same useless information.

"No, tell me everything you know. Rumors, gossip, anything the sensei's have said." Tobita began thinking, an uncertain look on his face as he mulled something over in his mind and I shot him a look that made him reconsider not telling me.

"Well, there is this one rumor that's been around. I don't really like spreading rumors, though…" I narrowed my eyes even further at him, and he continued.

"I don't know if it's true or not – well I hope it's not – but there really isn't much going around about her," he babbled.

"Just tell me," I snapped to interrupt his pointless ranting. He pursed his lips, looking down uncertainly.

"Well, there's a rumor saying that the reason she was taken to the Academy was because, well…" Before I could threaten him to continue already, he took a quick breath.

"Because she killed her parents!"

…

We entered the loud cafeteria room in silence, processing Tobita's words. I had suspected something had happened to her to gain the Academy's interest at such a young age, but I had never thought it would be something so dark.

_"it's just a rumor," Tobita reminded quickly. "I doubt any of that is even true." _

Just the same, there's a truth in every lie. Even if it wasn't exactly like the rumor, there had to be something along those lines that had happened to her.

The three of us sat down like we usually do, not outwardly portraying what we were feeling, but across the table from me I saw Saito's eyes narrow in suspicion.

_"But don't say anything to Saito." Ruka immediately pounced on this, wondering why he shouldn't confront her about it to see if it was true._

_"I'm worried because, well, if it's _not _a rumor…" Ruka's eyes widened in understanding while mine narrowed at the accusation._

_"She wouldn't kill us too, would she?" Tobita averted his gaze and shuffled uncomfortably._

_"That's what I'm worried about. No one's really asked her about it before, so I don't know how she'd react. I don't think she would hurt us! But you never really know with Kutan-Chan."_

I didn't worry about her killing us – she didn't seem like the murderous type, no matter how unwelcoming she was – but Ruka still regarded her more warily than he did before, and that's saying something.

I turned my gaze to him and watched as he shot a not-so-subtle glance at her before shoving a bite in his mouth when she caught him. I sighed at his attempts but continued to think. Finally, Saito appeared to have taken enough. She finished her banana and dropped the empty peel on her tray.

"Hyuuga," she drawled. "I think Ru-Chan's attempting to cheat on you. He keeps eyeing me." Ruka narrowed his eyes at her even as his cheeks colored at the failure of his subtlety.

"Yes," I retorted. "I'm sure he is." Her eyes slowly widened in surprise, but a little smirk grew on her face as she turned back to Ruka.

"You hear that? He doesn't have any faith in you." As they continued bickering I watched the twinkle of mischief in her eyes, then turned to my own lunch. No, she's definitely not a murderer. I wouldn't dismiss the fact that she may have killed someone, but she wasn't a murderer.

Ruka finally stopped talking, just ignoring her, and the closest thing she could do to a pout appeared on her face. And by that I mean she glared at him.

"You're no fun when you're like this." She then stood up and dropped her tray off. A moment later the bell went off and the rest of us followed.

"How do you put up with her all day?" Ruka whined as we went back to the dreaded classroom. I shot a look at him, avoiding some kid floating in the hallway, and kept walking.

"She doesn't tease me as much. It's just fun to bother you." He gave me an exasperated look and took a seat next to Tobita, who had finished his lunch earlier than everyone else and left the cafeteria straight away. I considered whether he really was worried about Saito killing him for knowing the rumor, then shut my eyes. This whole thing was ridiculous. It was a rumor; everyone must know it. Even if she was a murderer, she wouldn't go around killing everyone just for knowing a rumor.

Just the same, I kept my gaze away from her so she wouldn't somehow be able to read my thoughts on the subject. Even though I didn't worry about her murdering me in an ally somewhere, there was still a rumor of murder going around about her, which means death has happened near her. That's something to watch out for no matter the person.

_There are rumors like that about you, _an evil little voice whispered in the back of my head. I dismissed it quickly, but I knew it was true. Maybe Persona had been right; maybe Saito and I did have some things in common.

...

Ruka was convinced Saito was going to sneak into our rooms that night and murder us. He was currently pacing his room while I lay on his bed reading a manga. He paced past me again and I forced myself to ignore him, reading the little speech bubble for the dozenth time before finally processing it. Then he paced past me again and I had to continue with the process again for the next bubble.

I sighed and put the manga down, propping my arms up under my head to look at the pacing boy.

"Either stop or talk. You're distracting me." He let out an exasperated sound and plopped down onto the foot of the bed.

"Why aren't you taking this more seriously?! You train with her e_very _day and live down the hall from her!" I flexed my legs at the reminder of training and found the ever-present soreness still there.

"Remember when Tobita said that it was a rumor?" I drawled. It was getting steadily easier to ignore the soreness as time went by.

"Remember when Tobita said she _killed her parents?"_ I sat up, putting the manga down.

"Whether she killed her parents or not, I can't just stop going to sessions with her. She'd have to tell Persona, and he'd…" Well, he'd do a lot of things. The foremost of which was kick Ruka from a two star to a no star and do who knows what to Aoi before rubbing her suffering in my face, both of us knowing I was powerless to stop him. A chill ran down my spine and I shuddered, trying to shoo it away. Ruka immediately calmed at my shudder and slumped.

"I know. You're trapped." And no more had to be said, because that's all there was to it. I was trapped, so he and Aoi were trapped, and it wasn't a long shot to assume Saito was trapped, too.

"I can't judge her by a rumor," I said quietly, but I knew Ruka was listening. "Not with the rumors about me."

"But that's different!" I gave him a look, and he quickly elaborated. "That's different, because you didn't actually cause the fire. You were just protecting Aoi-Chan." I continued staring at him, trying to get him to see that rumors are all the same. My situation could be the exact same as hers. Maybe she had a sibling that she was trying to protect by taking the blame.

I frowned and looked down as I thought about that. She said Persona didn't have any leverage over her, so does that mean her sibling wasn't brought to the Academy?

_Or did she kill her sibling, too? _Came a treacherous thought that I ignored.

"Either way I'm continuing my training. Besides, it's not long before I have to go on missions. I need all the training I can get."

And boy did I get that training. As time went on sessions grew longer, and I'd occasionally find myself finally collapsing into bed in the early hours of the morning (still leaving Saito behind to train on her own). I could see differences in myself, though. I grew faster and stronger, and could control my Alice better than ever before. Weapons were eventually introduced to some extent, focusing on silent killers that can be concealed and held easily without hinderance. Guns were rarely used by us students, so the main focus right now were knives and daggers. From what I'd gleaned from the others in the Dangerous Class they usually didn't even bother with those, only relying on their Alices to get them through. But learning to use standard weapons was something Saito proved to be unwilling to budge on. On a more surprising note, Saito's continued yoga routines and meditation were paying off, so I could concentrate for long amounts of time and dodge blows swiftly. I was nearly ready for my missions. And that's good, because I only had a month left before my first.

Persona was sitting in on my training sessions more and more frequently, much to my chagrin. I could see his presence grating on Saito – especially whenever he called her out for incorrectly teaching me something that she seemed to be doing perfectly fine with – and we were both relieved whenever we made it through a session without him joining us at all.

The other class members were gradually released from the hospital so everyone's loads were reduced back to what they'd been before, and the hard feelings shown towards Saito cooled out and were forgotten. Everything was going back to normal, but I knew it was only for now. This was only the calm before the storm.

It was on one of the days Persona was watching my training that I saw Saito's Alice for the first time.

"Why don't you be his mentor if I'm doing it so wrong?!" She finally snapped. Persona regarded her coolly, then turned to me.

"You're aware of what Kokutan's Alice is, are you not?" My blood chilled at his abrupt question and I saw Saito go still.

I nodded, not liking the direction this was taking.

"But you've never seen it?" Another nod. "Natsume, your training is finished for today. You are to stay for Kokutan's training instead." Mine and Saito's faces paled simultaneously. She was the first to snap out of it, folding her arms and glaring at the masked man.

"I don't train with my Alice. You know that."

"Natsume needs to know what you're capable of if he wants to fully trust you to watch his back on missions. Wouldn't you say, Natsume?" I didn't answer, but I could feel a morbid curiosity growing inside of me.

Though I didn't admit it, I was curious about her Alice and how it worked.

"And besides, who would I use it on? You? It's not an Alice people like training with." Persona didn't answer but turned his masked face to me. And the appeal dropped.

"You're not serious." No answer. "Persona," she sighed like she was telling a child something obvious. I wondered if that was wise. "If I do that there won't be any trust in me left for the missions, so you may as well just forget this." I felt myself relax at her reasoning. Persona didn't move his gaze, watching me through his little white mask.

"Yes," he finally spoke. "I suppose you're right." He turned abruptly. "I'll send in Nakamura." When he shut the door behind him I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding and Saito made an annoyed sound.

"I can't stand him!" She burst out, throwing her arms up in annoyance. We busied ourselves putting dummies away, then resigned ourselves to waiting for him to show up again. I waited with a water bottle and watched as Saito began stretching. I was familiar with the warm-up stretches she was doing and was surprised to realize that they didn't make me sore at all anymore. I was getting stronger, and it was about time. I took a sip of water, letting my eyes drift to the ceiling. I'm _so sick _of being sore.

"Oi, Saito," I called over. She lifted her eyes to me but continued her stretches. "Would you have used your Alice on me?" She narrowed her gaze.

"Of course I would have," she snapped. I raised an eyebrow and she dropped her gaze as she bent over forward at the waste, easily reaching her feet.

"It sounded like you were defending yourself," I noted lazily. Though I couldn't see her face I just knew her eye twitched. A defeated sigh eventually came from her as she straightened up again.

"I wouldn't have liked it, but I would've. It's never good for anyone to get on Persona's bad side." I smirked at her, though something relaxed in me at knowing she wouldn't have used her Alice on me unless forced to. Her face somehow grew serious even through the impassive mask she was wearing.

"That being said, I expect you to use your Alice on me if Persona doesn't give you a choice on it. People only disobey Persona when they have a death wish." I understood, and knew my face was as grim as hers. Then something occurred to me.

"You disobey Persona all the time." Isn't that the point of all the punishments she gets? She smirked.

"Over time it's easy to tell when he's giving a command and when he's giving more of a suggestion. _Those _you can disobey."

Before I could demand an elaboration, Persona came back into the room trailing a fidgeting middle schooler. His eyes darted to me and Saito quickly, before going back to Persona.

"You can't be serious." He mirrored Saito's earlier words. "These two are the strongest in the class. I can't fight them." Persona corrected that he was only fighting Saito – to which the middle schooler paled considerably – but I ignored him, because hey. I'm already considered one of the strongest in the class.

I sent an ego-satisfied smirk to Saito while she loosened some of her many earing Alice Restrainers, but she was sending one right back at me. Mine muffled and I sent her a dark look, to which her smirk only widened.

Nakamura didn't stand a chance. Five minutes into their spar he was flat on his back, and she hadn't even used her Alice.

"This is a spar with Alices," Persona immediately snapped at the two of them. "Nakamura, that was pitiful. Saito, you're being sloppy." My eyes widened in surprise at the familiar criticism, recognizing it as one Saito often threw at me. She didn't say anything, but I could see her fists clench.

Nakamura sent a pleading look Saito's way, but she was now straightening, setting herself up for a true fight this time. My blood chilled as her eyes emptied of all emotion and were filled with the blank darkness I occasionally saw there when she returned from missions. It's the darkness that's there when there will be no mercy given to you. The darkness you see before you're murdered.

The rumor floating around about her returned to my mind.

_"The rumor's that she didn't have control of her powers when she was young," Tobita continued after his initial outburst. "When she got really mad at them one day she made them commit suicide. The worst part is, when she was brought to the school she didn't care. It's like she didn't have any emotions at all."_

I wasn't the only one who saw the change in her. Nakamura stood up shakily, bringing his arms up quickly in a defensive stance. It's when I saw Persona smirk that I got worried for him.

I didn't even have time to blink. One second Nakamura was standing, the next he'd been knocked down and Saito was on top of him.

She raised her hand and what looked like black fog started coming from it, wisping lazily towards Nakamura almost like it could sense him. He let out a shocked yelp and began wriggling to get out from under her, and he would've made it, but she brought her hand down to his head.

I held my breath, now standing up, and everything inside of me told me to run away. But Nakamura had gone still for a moment. Saito removed her hand and got off, standing up quickly but still looking down at him. Then her head suddenly snapped up to look at something in the rafters just as Nakamura did. I looked up as well but didn't see anything.

And the screaming began. I slapped my hands over my ears, trying to block the shrill sound that was coming from Nakamura.

His mouth and eyes were wide open, tears streaming down his face, as he screamed the worst sound I'd ever heard. Saito didn't cover her ears, though. She just kept looking up into the rafters at the thing only she and Nakamura could see, with a frown on her face. And though I was aware of Persona still smirking from further in the room, it wasn't him I was looking at, but her.

That was the first time I realized that monsters don't always look like monsters.


	6. Chapter 6

Hey guys, I already gave this spiel in my other fic Not Alone, but I'm gonna put it here for you all as well. So, with everything going on all creativity and motivation to write has pretty much gone out the window. I live in New Mexico so we've been under a shelter-in-place for a couple weeks now and I've been out of work for even longer. At first I thought I'd use the time to write like crazy since I don't have anything else to do, but quickly found that as soon as I sit down to write I just can't. Then I realized that it's because this isn't normal free time, or a vacation of any sort. This is a lockdown, where tension is high and I'm constantly worried for family members and friends world-wide at risk for getting the virus. I've had to come to terms during this time that I'm most likely going to lose a few family members by the time this rolls over and for me family is the most important thing so that hurts.

Knowing this, I finally decided that I'm not the only one suffering right now, and just like I've been reading fics to escape during this time you guys are probably doing the same. So, I've decided to update at least one of my fics every week, even if I drag my feet every moment. It probably won't be the same fic each week, but hopefully this'll help with whatever you're experiencing right now. At this point I'm writing for you guys. Those of you already effected deeply by this, I'm sorry for what you're going through. Everyone reading this from your homes, scared for what's to come, just remember to do your best. Even if that means just getting up today. This one's for all of you. Covid-19 will not beat us.

**Disclaimer: The usual**

[o]

Chapter 6

Persona's smirk stayed firmly on his face when Natsume left the room in a rush. It stayed while there was no movement in the room frequented only by him, Kokutan, and the boy still quivering on his back. It stayed when the girl snapped out of whatever reverie she had been in. And it slowly widened as horror grew on her face at the realization of what she'd just done and left the room, running after her mentee.

All was going according to plan.

…

"Hyuuga!" I burst out the door leading outside and looked either way, but he was already out of sight. I grit my teeth, forcing my frantic mind to concentrate for a moment. Where would he have gone after a possibly traumatic experience?

Well duh. I rushed down the path leading to the dorm building. Because the only person he had supporting him right now was Nogi.

As my walking pace gradually turned to a full out sprint I bit my lip. What had I done? My jaw clenched, and I had to consciously keep myself from breaking the skin clenched between my teeth. What had I done?

It was all Persona's fault, of course. He knew that my Alice is feared by everyone, no matter the strength of their own Alices. He just wanted to remind me that even though I wasn't under his control, he could still ruin my life.

The dorm building came into view and I slowed my pace, quickly scrambling for something I'd say to him. Apologize? For what? I hadn't done anything to him, I'd just scared him. Tell him he was being ridiculous? Well he wasn't. My Alice isn't a nice thing to witness.

I slowed to a stop. What was I even doing here? I had no reason to feel bad for obeying Persona. As I'd told Hyuuga before, it's best not to go against Persona's orders. It's not my fault he had wimped out when I scared Nakamura. Sympathy gets you nowhere, especially while in the clutches of the Academy.

But even as I thought that I could still hear the middle schooler's screams echoing in my ears. I could still see the image of a woman – possibly his mother – hanging in the rafters from a noose. A shudder made its way down my spine and I found my resolve. Even if I didn't have any reason to apologize, I may as well figure out what was wrong. Yeah, I'd just play the part of the concerned mentor.

Having made up my mind, I made my way to the second star's room. The few kids wandering the halls scampered away as soon as they saw me, but I hardly even noticed anymore. When I made it to the room labeled "Nogi Ruka" with two stars beneath it, I lifted my fist and knocked before I could talk myself out of it.

The silence went stagnant as soon as the sharp cracking ended, and I tried to wait patiently while those inside made up their mind on whether to ignore me or not. Not that I'd let them ignore me if they chose to. Apparently they realized that, too, because the door finally opened.

It wasn't Hyuuga, but his light-haired sidekick.

"Go away." I raised an eyebrow, my heart sinking quickly. Hyuuga must've already explained some of the gym incident to him.

"The feeling's mutual. Where's Hyuuga?"

"I'm serious Saito. Go away." Frustration crept up inside me.

"I'm sorry, did I catch you two while you were _busy?_" I strongly implied, but he didn't rise to the bait. His eyes didn't so much as narrow, and I realized that I wouldn't be able to take the concerned mentor approach because of the stupid, empty-headed, _frustrating, _blonde boy. So, keeping full eye contact with the meddlesome brat, I called out past him.

"Hyuuga, why'd you run?" No answer.

"Don't tell me you're scared of something you couldn't even see." Because only Nakamura and I had been able to see the woman in the rafters. Still no answer.

"Missions will be a whole heck of a lot worse than that, so you'd best not get your panties in a twist." That got him and his teenage pride.

I could hear him as he stomped his way to the door, and my eyes met his boiling blood ones as we both ignored Nogi's protests, telling Hyuuga that he could handle it.

"I told you, Persona's not someone to cross," were my immediate words. I wouldn't admit that I was defending my actions. But what came out of his mouth next was not what I was expecting at all.

"Did you kill your parents?" He spat.

It felt like someone had given me a solid one in the gut. My eyes widened and I couldn't breathe. I opened my mouth only to snap it closed shortly after failing at speaking a few times, no doubt looking like a landed fish.

How I ended up in my dorm after that I'm not quite sure. I'm pretty sure I ran, but that would be saying I had run away from Hyuuga, and I don't run away from anything so that's not possible. And the tears glistening in my eyes? It was most definitely because I had _walked quickly _past someone cutting onions.

But mostly, it was just because he was right.

I _had _killed my parents, and it was both the best and worst day of my life.

…

I avoided Hyuuga and Nogi after that. I once again stopped attended any classes, and whenever I wasn't training I was on missions. Hyuuga's daily training was quiet, and neither of us spoke more than we had to. His progress began to slip, but I didn't mind. If Persona minded, it was his own fault. He should've known what it would do to show Hyuuga my Alice.

Any spare time was spent taking naps or in the infirmary, and whereas I had only recently been complaining to Persona about my large mission load, I now welcomed it. The other members of the Dangerous class were bewildered each time I asked for another extra mission, but they didn't mind. It meant they had more time off.

It was very early in the morning after a week of this behavior that it happened.

I had collapsed into bed, wondering if I'd worked myself hard enough today that I could sleep without nightmares, when my wondering stopped. Something was gripping my heart, and I stood up quickly; I was entirely sure that something was wrong.

My worries were confirmed as the grip around my heart tightened, and I could feel my chest constricting. I began gasping for air and was only able to draw breath painstakingly. Pain seared through me like I had been stabbed and I collapsed onto my knees. My eyes snapped over to the emergency telephone at the side of my bed, and I wondered why on earth it felt so far away.

Fluid began building at the back of my throat and I was forced to hack it up if I intended to keep breathing, but each cough stabbed my chest anew and by the end I was gritting my teeth past the pain, forcing each breath through my teeth.

If I had looked down at my hand I would've seen the crimson liquid staining it and realized that I was having another episode. But my chest was heaving and I knew I needed help, which would only come if I reached that phone.

I leaned down onto all fours, though I kept one hand firmly gripping the skin over my heart, and slowly inched my way over to the bedside table, somehow managing to get the number dialed as black crowded in on my vision.

"Hello? Saito?" Came the voice of my favorite nurse who had insisted I kept the telephone in here. I had vehemently protested at the time, but was now grateful.

I gripped the white plastic, hazily realizing past the lack of oxygen that I had turned parts of the telephone blood red. _Like Hyuuga's eyes. _But no words went past my lips. I could only wheeze weakly into the receiver and had to stop half-way through finding my voice to hack up more blood.

"Kokutan?" Her voice was worried. "Just hang in there. I'm sending help right now. Kokutan, you need to keep talking to me. Please Kokutan."

I didn't, though. With a pain-filled groan I'd slumped over, exhaustion, pain, and lack of oxygen sending me to the world of the unconscious.

At least I didn't have any dreams while there.

…

Natsume's POV

I fought vague worry as Saito once again failed to show up to class. Ruka and Tobita had long since taken residence in her seat, but that wasn't any comfort. Especially now. I had the distinct impression that something was wrong.

As had been the case for the last week she didn't show up at all that day, and I couldn't help but worry about when she was eating if she was constantly skipping lunch. Maybe Persona was punishing her again?

At the thought of Persona all my negative feelings towards her came back up, and I tried to make myself think that it was her own problem if she was eating or not. She wasn't my responsibility.

Still, I could clearly see her hurt look when I had asked about her parents whenever I shut my eyes. What had that look meant? Had it meant that she had in fact killed her parents?

The final bell snapped me awake and I realized with a start that I had slept right through the last class. No doubt because my training had been so late last night. As Saito's missions increased her schedule was becoming more and more inconvenient, which meant that I was left having sessions starting late at night and ending in the early morning. Thankfully last night's training hadn't been as long, as she'd been pressed to get to another mission.

I got up and waited for Ruka and Tobita to finish grabbing their books, still thinking about other things. No doubt Saito was on another mission right now, still working herself to the bone.

"Did you hear?" A girl whispered to another as they waited for a companion to grab her bag. "_She's _in the infirmary again. Must've picked a fight with someone, like usual." And without even hearing a name I knew who they were talking about from the disdain in their voices.

I turned around quickly, startling them.

"Who's in the infirmary?" I asked coldly and calmly, though I could feel a slight creeping of panic growing inside of me. Had someone finally bested her? Had they gotten past that awful Alice of hers? I pushed down the feeling the thought of her Alice brought up, and instead focused on the surprised girls in front of me.

"Oh, Natsume-kun. Saito's in the infirmary," one said, still clearly shocked.

"I thought you'd know, since you're her partner," said the other. I didn't bother saying anything else, and instead turned to Tobita.

"We're going to the infirmary." I'd had to turn to him, of course, since neither Ruka nor I knew where the infirmary was yet.

…

As with all hospitals and infirmaries, the building was large, stank of antiseptic and was teeming with nurses squeaking their shoes on the linoleum floors.

I hate hospitals.

"We're here to see Saito Kokutan," Tobita told the woman behind the desk. She looked at us skeptically.

"What are your connections?" I returned her gaze and was struck immediately by how large her nose was. Was that a nose hair hanging out of it?

I fought past my disgust as I pushed in front of Tobita.

"She's my mentor in the Dangerous Ability Class." Her eyebrows went up a fraction, but otherwise her face stayed impassive. We stared each other down for a second before she finally looked down and typed something into the computer in front of her.

"Name?" I only gave her mine, but she didn't ask for the others so they didn't speak up. Then she picked up a telephone and put it to her ear. She quickly exchanged words with the person on the other line, then put it back down.

"I've called Saito's nurse to come get you. You can take a seat while you wait." There was hardly a wait anyway.

The nurse that called for us and led the way to Saito's room had brown hair that glinted ginger in the fluorescent lights and tired eyes, as if she had seen too much suffering in her years at the Academy. Knowing some of the darker secrets the Academy kept, I knew that could easily be the case.

"You must be Saito's friends," she said as we walked down a hall. I gave her a look.

"No. She's my mentor." Her open face quickly darkened and I fought the urge to take a defensive stance.

"You're in the Dangerous Class?" I was surprised that she'd put it together so quickly, but nodded anyway. The dark look left her face and she just sighed like she knew an awful secret that was burning the life out of her. Though I guess she really did. She must see Dangerous Type kids a lot, if she already knew the consequences of being in the class. More precisely, she knew about the missions.

"If I can ask," ventured Tobita as we turned a corner. "What happened to Saito?" She sent him an apologetic look.

"It's not my place to tell you. You can ask Saito herself if she's awake, though." We stopped in front of a door which she knocked lightly on. There wasn't an answer, not that I expected one even if she was awake.

"We're coming in." Despite not answering, Saito was sitting up awake in her bed, shooting an accusing look at the nurse.

"I never told you to come in. Go away." She went silent as we filed in after the nurse, then sent a glare her way instead. The nurse sweat dropped and went to make her escape.

"Your friends are here to visit you. Now I'll just be on my way – "

" – They're not my friends. Now get rid of them." I narrowed my eyes at her and took up a spot next to her bed while the nurse continued her retreat.

"I'm going to go take care of another patient," she said hurriedly and slid the door shut behind her quickly.

"Go away. I don't want to talk to you guys." Upon closer inspection her skin was pale and clammy, and there were dark circles under eyes. The bandages that were multiplying each time I saw her were still there, as well as an additional one wrapped around her wrist. Other than that, she seemed the same as always, so I didn't know what was bad enough to send her to the infirmary.

"Did you not hear me, baka? I said go away."

"Not until you tell us what happened." I was surprised that Ruka had spoken up. He had been opposed to visiting her at all, and I'm sure he still worried at night that she'd come and kill one of us in our sleep, especially since I told him what happened with Nakamura. But he had eventually caved in, and I appreciated the support he was showing now. I sent him a minute grateful look and turned back to Saito, whose eyes were now narrowed at Tobita.

"I know why these two baka are here, but what happened to bring _you _here?"

"I did," I answered for him on the matter, but didn't allow her change in subject to wander any further. Plus, Tobita looked like he would pee himself at any moment, so I did him a favor and got her attention back on me. She leveled her gaze on me, then looked away with her nose pointed slightly upwards.

"I overworked myself. Nothing serious." Then she looked back at me sharply. "So stop being a nanny and go away." There's no way she would've given it up that easily. She lied.

"Maybe when you tell the truth." She narrowed her eyes at me, then raised an eyebrow.

"You do know I could just call security. They'd get you out."

"But you haven't," I reminded her. It's true. If she was going to call security she would've the moment we walked in. That didn't mean she was going to let it go so easily, though.

"Why do you even care?" she snapped. That brought me to reality. Why _did _I care? Neither of us had been on good terms since the gym incident. I looked at her now and wondered just why that was. _Because her Alice is intimidating? _Baka, your _own_ Alice is intimidating.

I thought back to how she had chased after me when I had left. How she said she wouldn't have liked using her Alice on me.

_"And besides," _I remembered her saying to Persona. _"Who would I use it on? You? It's not an Alice people like training with."_

She knew what her Alice was, and what it did to people. And then it dawned on me that she didn't even like her Alice. I could see it in the way she talked about it, and in the way she had avoided using it in her first duel with Nakamura. She hadn't _wanted _to use it against him.

"Ruka," I called behind me. "I'd like to talk to Saito alone. Why don't you have Tobita take you back to the dorms?" Tobita was all for the idea, but despite Ruka's obvious mutual want to get away from her, he protested anyway.

"Natsume, you shouldn't be in here alone." I raised an eyebrow at him but understood his worries. Surprisingly, it was Saito who refuted him.

"Don't worry. I have all sorts of restraints on right now. Even if I were to use my Alice on anyone, it would probably affect me worse than it would the other person." She indicated the many earrings and bracelets she was sporting. Then she raised an eyebrow at him as well. "Besides, Hyuuga's the one who mentioned it. Overbearing partners are stifling; I thought I'd already told you." A vein popped on his forehead and he turned around without further ado.

"I'll be in my room," he said, then shut the door behind him and a relieved looking Tobita. I stared after him for a moment, then turned back to Saito who was lifting herself into a more upright position.

"Well, you wanted to talk to me?" I didn't answer immediately, debating on whether I wanted to say it or not.

"I overreacted." And there it was.

It was humiliating.

She didn't react, and almost looked like she hadn't heard me at all. Then she blinked at me, slowly raised an eyebrow, and full out smirked. My eyes narrowed in response.

"You don't say!"

"Well what was I supposed to do?" I snapped. Her smirk only grew, though. Then it abruptly fell, almost giving me whiplash with her mood change.

"It's not a nice Alice to see." She looked away. "I probably would've run, too, so I can't blame you."

I shifted forward on the seat next to her bed, but she ignored the movement and continued to look the other away.

"What I said," I started. "About your parents." Her arm flexed for a second, but she still didn't turn. I waited a moment, then finished. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." At this she turned to me, her eyes widened in surprise.

"What?" I leveled her with a look, refusing to repeat myself. She didn't really need me to, anyway. "You're serious." I didn't answer, because of course I was serious. I'm not the type to joke. Then there was silence.

Neither of us spoke for a minute. I had just figured we were done talking and was about to get up and leave when she spoke again.

"Just like with all Alices, I didn't have very good control of mine at first." I looked at her in surprise, only to find that she was looking at me directly.

"In fact, it was out of hand; I couldn't control it at all." She blinked at me and looked away for a fraction of a second. "Actually, for a long time I didn't even know I had an Alice. I just figured I naturally made everyone around me unhappy." My eyes widened when I realized what she was doing.

"Saito, I said you didn't need to – "

" – I know what you said, and thank you. But that's exactly why I want to tell you." Determination glinted in her violet eyes so I leaned back in my chair, waiting for her to continue.

"Since I lived with them, my parents were affected the most. Each day they got worse, and I never understood why until Persona appeared for the first time." My eyes narrowed at his name, but she continued. "He said I had been hard to detect since my Alice isn't quite so, well, noticeable as most. As in people weren't reporting a kid randomly starting fires." She gave me a mischievous look, but it disappeared as soon as it came.

"When I was six Persona cornered me on my way home from school. It had already been a bad day, and I got scared, more scared than I normally would. So I ran from him, and when I lost him I hid. I hid for days, because I was scared of him, of going home, of the people at school. Everyone was always so angry and scared around me, and Persona had already explained to me about Alices." She clenched her jaw, and I could almost see the scared girl she was describing.

"It was my fault. All of it. So I thought that maybe it would be better for everyone if I just left; disappeared. I couldn't go on like that, of course, and after a few days I went home." She closed her eyes, but still continued.

"I had been affecting my parents with my Alice since I was born, and while I was gone my mom realized it. She told my father, but he hadn't quite shaken it off yet." She opened her eyes again and looked away, out the window at the blooming cherry blossoms.

"He killed her. Then when he realized what he had done, he killed himself, too. That's what I found when I came home. Persona took me to the Academy, then. He told me that at the Academy they'd help me control my abilities so none of that would ever happen again." She stopped, but she didn't have to continue. I knew the rest of the story. Persona lied and took advantage of her.

"The rumors are right, though. I did kill my parents. If I'd never been born, they'd both still be alive. Or at least, they wouldn't have gone that way."

"But you didn't murder them?" My question visibly surprised her, and her answer was quick.

"Of course not!" So I had been right; she wasn't a murderer. She gave me an odd look, but became impassive after a moment.

"There's something else I need to tell you." I raised an eyebrow slightly in question. "The reason I'm in here," she elaborated. Without waiting for me to say anything she began her explanation.

"There are four primary Alice shapes. The first is the Childhood shape, where the person only has their Alice during childhood, and then loses it when they become an adult. The next is the Intermittent shape, when the person can only use their Alice for a short amount of time, but at high power. Each time they use their Alice, however, their Alice life shortens until it runs out and they no longer have an Alice. There's also the Diffuse shape, where the Alice is always there but at a low power level. Finally, there's the Life-shortening shape. With this shape the Alice has a high-power level and can be used as long and whenever the person wants. However, the more the Alice is used the more it causes the person's body to degrade, until they either stop using it or die." Here she frowned.

"I have the life shortening Alice, and we think you do too."

So that means…

"If we're right about this, you may very well be the person laying in the hospital bed someday." I felt dread pooling inside me but kept my face impassive. If that was true, then I'd die sooner rather than later. What would happen to Ruka and Aoi?

"By 'we' you mean…" she nodded after I trailed off.

"Me and Persona, as well as a few of the other sensei. Persona hasn't come right out and said it yet, but by this point he doesn't have to. It's apparent in our training that you're powerful, and the others have gotten wind of that." That explained a few of the new rumors that had begun circling about me.

"If your Alice is killing you, why do you use it?" At this she gave a humorless chuckle.

"I'm usually more careful. But I've been careless this past week, and you can see the result." I lifted an eyebrow at her in slight disbelief.

"You're not telling me that just because I didn't like your Alice you decided to kill yourself." Surprisingly, she didn't rise to the bait like I expected. She didn't even seem to acknowledge the joke.

"Don't flatter yourself. I was hurt, though. You're certainly not the first person to run from my Alice. But you are the first person I wanted to accept it."

With that information on my mind the nurse came in and told me that Saito needed her rest so I needed to leave. Saito didn't speak anymore, so I went ahead and left, going immediately to Ruka's dorm to tell him what Saito had just told me. Though I wasn't sure how he'd take it (I did know he wouldn't react well) I did know that I'd want Ruka to tell me about the new development if our roles were reversed.

[o]

Just a heads up that I'll be taking down the original version of this story in the next week or two. Hopefully by then I'll be caught up to that one and continue writing here where I left off.


	7. Chapter 7

**Astraea Velzquez****: Thank you, we're doing our best. My dad thinks it's all a big conspiracy, but the rest of us are being careful. I hope you and your family are as well.**

I changed a bit more in this chapter than I did the past few. Nothing serious, but little non-consequential things and I really like the little changes. Makes it seem a tad easier to read, in any case. I will explain my lengthy absence after promising weekly updates for my fics with four words: My brother tested positive. It looks like he'll be okay. He's young, fit, and very healthy. His chances of surviving are much higher than the opposite. Did this rationalization keep me from freaking out? No. Am I still freaking out? Less so, but yes. So again, sorry, but I needed to calm down first.

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own anything you recognize. **

[o]

Chapter 7

Hyuuga's training became more intense after that while we both worked on picking up any slack and preparing him for his ever-nearing first mission. As ever he progressed rapidly, and that was good, too, because before we knew it he'd been training for six months and the long-dreaded moment had reached us. It was finally time for his first mission.

We met outside the equipment room in the dead of the night where I roughly debriefed him on the mission, leaving out a couple vital points to keep from freaking him out too early. For the sake of his almighty eleven-year-old pride I pretended not to see the nerves written clearly all over him. Not his face so much, but the shuffling of his feet and anxious finger rubbing. Nothing obvious, but tells just the same.

"After passing the gate we're going to be under strict surveillance, which means we'll be punished severely if we don't make it from point A to point B within the time limit. That means no stopping for rest." And like that his poker face changed just subtly enough to know something had just occurred to him. Three guesses what.

For the first time in months Hyuuga would be let out of the walls of the Academy, and that fact had his eyes darting as he planned an escape attempt. I regarded him before giving an almighty eye roll as we entered the room and geared up. Some poker face he had. Best set him straight now and nip that at the bud before he did something fantastically stupid.

"You can't escape." He shot me a glare but didn't say anything as he grabbed a couple daggers. "I'm serious," I continued as I followed his lead. "They'll come looking for you, and once they find you they'll make you question the meaning of pain." He averted his eyes slightly at the implications of that, and I figured the vague warning would at least keep him from trying to slip off tonight. If not to save himself then to protect his friend and sister. Just the same, I'd have to let Persona know he'd be slippery, so any inevitable attempts weren't somehow linked back to me.

"Not to mention anyone you're with will also be in danger." I grabbed a plain black mask with narrowed eye slips and he watched me as I put it on. It hadn't yet been decided if he'd need a mask, but watching his still-racing eyes I knew he'd have a mask of his own in no time.

"You know too many secrets for them to let you go."

…

It was a simple protection mission. We just had to watch our bit of the long strip of the road leading through a wooded area to the Academy's western entrance, and make sure the car passing through made it safely within the gates. After that we would be home free, the car wouldn't be under any more possible danger, and Hyuuga will have successfully completed his first accompanied mission.

I knew the road, though, and I knew who we were protecting. There was no way this would go as easily as hoped. Many a rookie mission was spent guarding cars either going to or leaving the Academy on this road, and it was notorious for how many raids happened on it. After all, the very trees valued for hiding the Academy and said cars from unwanted eyes could just as easily be employed by some of our many enemies for concealment.

"The car we're guarding is holding Watanabe Li. He's in charge of a large underground weapons dealership. The Academy caught him in the act some years ago and in return for letting him continue running his business he provides us with a large portion of our weapons, as well as refraining from dealing weapons out to the Academy's enemies."

We scaled the gate and our Alice restraints allowed us to pass since Persona had given his permission. A small warning shock issued from my mask and the restraints I was wearing to alert me I was entering a forbidden area. By now the feeling was familiar, though I did wince when Hyuuga flinched at the feeling of his own warning shock. Oops, forgot to mention that. From there we jumped to the ground and began to sprint. For any observing the Academy for less than friendly purposes, a car would be obvious leaving from the gates so we weren't driven to our assigned area. In preparation for this I'd already been running laps around the Academy with Hyuuga. This was definitely more than he'd ever run at a time before, but he'd have to manage. Because he really didn't have a choice in the matter.

"We're not the only Alices on this assignment," I continued to explain while we ran. "A few others have been assigned to keep watch on different portions of the road. All we have to do is watch that the car gets through our strip safely and give backup if anyone calls for it." I refrained from telling him that it was more than likely that we'd either be called for backup or be calling for backup.

I internally scoffed at the impassive boy. Yeah, no need to give him that information and make him any more nervous than he already was. But really, he was almost as hard to read as I was, and that's not an easy feat.

As we ran his breathing grew noticeably more strained but he didn't complain at all, and I didn't comment on it. Before he knew it physical strain like this would be more normal and expected in life than turning in homework on time, but the first time is always the hardest. Deciding there wasn't any need to make him suffer in silence I cast around for a topic to bring up. I figured against discuss the mission further for the moment, since he knew everything needed and I'd mention anything more as needed when we arrived. Anything concerning the Academy or the Dangerous Class was depressing and infuriating, mixed in with a nice dose of hopelessness, which really wasn't a good mood to start this with. So inane chatter it is.

"You know, it wouldn't hurt to crack a smile every now and again. Who knows, it may even be healthy." He shot me an exasperated look which I easily brushed off. Sure, overall his poker face needed some work, but that's only when it's needed. Showing inner feelings is an art itself, good for not only emotional but, uh, physical health as well. And it makes you happy, probably…Yeah, I wasn't convincing myself either.

"You decided to talk about this _now?" _Well, we still had a good half hour before we got there, and it's this or our hopeless futures as slaves of the Academy until capture or death, or the ever un-attainable graduation. Wonderful as the second options is, somehow it was easy to choose the first. "And besides, who are _you _to talk?"

"I smile all the time!"

"Smirks don't count." I opened my mouth to retort, but shut my mouth.

"How does Nogi deal with you all the time?" He shot me a smirk.

"He's asked me that about you, too."

Talking was sparse after that, but it had the intended effect of taking his mind off of the strain of running for so long, so mission accomplished. As we neared our assigned area we took to the trees, keeping an eye around and below us in case there was anyone around that would pose a threat as we leapt quietly from limb to limb. Hyuuga's breathing had become a bit ragged at this point, but still no complaints so I kept up our fast pace. If we didn't report that we were in our spot soon there could be trouble.

I finally began to slow and he followed my lead as we stopped, panting lightly. I scoped the area around us quickly as he took a moment to rest, slumping against the trunk of the tree we'd stopped in.

"Eyes up, soldier," I said quietly. Taking just a moment longer he straightened with a long exhale and approached to stand at my side. We looked out past the leaves of the tree we were in at the seemingly innocent strip of road. Or at least, where the road appeared to be. It's hard to see a black strip of tar past midnight. The half-moon illuminated it somewhat, but that did near-nothing in the shadows cast by the trees.

I grabbed the walkie from my hip and pressed the button.

"Akumu and Newbie in position." He shot me a peeved look at the name and I shrugged as I put the walkie back in its spot. "We don't have a name for you yet." He didn't comment, but the unimpressed look said it all.

"The car should reach its first checkpoint in fifteen, then in another fifteen it'll be in our area until the next checkpoint. In about an hour the car should reach the Academy and we'll be free to head back." It sounds so simple and tidy when summarized like that, and rarely followed those ideals when it comes down to it. Fifteen minutes in I was wondering if it wouldn't actually be better for someone to ambush us, or the car, or _someone_, because I was bored.

Ugh, I'd forgotten how dull rookie missions were. It's all wait and little action. The more advanced missions are all action little wait, which is my preferred ratio.

There wasn't any talking from then on, and we kept our eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary. But so far none of the shadows had shadows and I ventured a thought that things might actually go smoothly for once. It was only a passing thought. Just the same, that meant it had been long enough for our guards to start lowering.

"Hyuuga, I whispered. "I didn't tell you earlier, but the chances of this being a smooth mission are little to none. This road is known for botched up plans." He narrowed his eyes.

"And you chose to tell me now because…?"

"Didn't want you letting your guard down." Because that's always the moment everything goes bad.

Fifteen minutes later the car entered our area. Fifteen minutes of us following it unseen in the trees and watching for anything threatening went peacefully and we passed the car off to the next Alices. But that's the only peace we got.

"We need backup," came the static-y voice of the walkie talky. "Third checkpoint, Bogeyman and…uh, Nee-chan." Ick, I didn't know the two creeps were here. Without a word I took off knowing Hyuuga would be behind me. I answered in the walkie that we were on our way, and a moment later the other groups answered the same.

"Yakumo Hajime, 'Bogeyman'," I informed Hyuuga as we went. "He as the Insect Pheromone Alice. Amane Rui, 'Nee-chan'. He has the Curse Alice." As much as I dislike the two, if they were in trouble then this wasn't a laughing matter. "They're both strong, so if they're calling for backup the threat shouldn't be underestimated." He didn't answer in any way, but he didn't need to. Still, at first glance he looked cool as a cucumber. But I had been training with him for half a year now, and I could see the hesitation as he landed on each limb. I could see the way his eyes darted around slightly, as if afraid we would be attacked at any moment (which was a valid worry, really). Unfortunately, his first mission wasn't going to be a smooth one.

We could hear the fighting a few minutes before we reached it, and it didn't sound good. I perked my ears, trying to get a layout before reaching them. My eyes narrowed as there were rapid pops in quick succession. A gun. More than one. Few of the Dangerous Ability kids carried such conspicuous weapons, which meant we were under heavy fire.

Knowing that, I pulled out of our breakneck speed and went for a stealth approach. By now Hyuuga had identified the popping as guns, too, and followed my lead immediately. Not a moment too soon, either, since just then some of the men fleeing the scene ran past the tree beneath us. Without thinking I dropped on one and hit him firmly on the head with my elbow, knocking him out before he'd even hit the ground. Just as quickly I leapt from him to another one, silencing him before he could alert anyone to our situation. Behind me Hyuuga dropped as well, taking care of the others. Our mini-battle was over in a minute, and I was very proud to see Hyuuga take two down in complete and utter silence. Our position wasn't compromised.

"Akumu and Newbie are at the fight. What's your position?" I asked through the walkie, creeping up to the shrubbery blocking view of the road to see how things were faring so far. And things weren't faring well.

"The car's down," Yakumo answered. "We're guarding the passengers. Requesting backup immediately." He confirmed everything I saw, from the burning remains of the car to the black clad people attacking four of our own and the few people who had been occupying the car further up the road. He then clarified something I hadn't known.

"The enemies are Alice users. I repeat, the enemies are Alice users." I held back some colorful language and turned to Hyuuga.

"Well Newbie, the fun begins." We took off towards the people and I quickly gaged the situation before engaging. Swarms of bugs were clustered around some of our black clad attackers courtesy to Yakumo, and I reasoned that out here at night there was no shortage of bugs in his range. A number of them were marked with little black symbols, screaming and writhing in pain. I refrained from rolling my eyes at noticing the majority of said symbols were little hearts, which was very much a characteristic move for Amane.

I reached the fight and ducked under an armed hand aiming at one of my classmates. I pushed up so the fired bullet went off course and in the same movement disarmed him and used the gun's hilt to knock him out. A quick glance behind me showed Natsume engaging against a user with his daggers so I turned back around and used the momentum to swing my heel at another person trying to catch my back. A horrible _crack _and the following scream informed me his kneecap had been shattered.

Other than the handiwork of the two oldest students here I could make out the work of the two who would've been at the next checkpoint. Some of the masked attackers were sporting terrible burns on their bare skin, or even through their clothes, and I recognized the work of Takahashi's Heat Alice. However, there weren't any birds in sight, which would've been the work of Takahashi's mentee Ito. A quick glance around showed that Ito was in fact here, and once again he was being useless. Plus he was injured by the looks of his limp, and the enemy saw this, too. They were trying to get rid of the weak link in the defenses and his defense against them was clearly half-hearted even from here. The hell is he thinking?

Another look showed Takahashi was preoccupied with fighting off a half-dozen of his own problems, leaving him unable to come to his mentee's aid. I briefly contemplated letting Ito be offed, if only just so we didn't have to continue cleaning up after him. Takahashi might even thank me, if he wasn't such a softie.

"Newbie," I called to Hyuuga, ignoring his glare and gesturing to where Takahashi was being overwhelmed. "Backup Thermo then stick with him. Don't get killed. I'm going to give some aid to Rookie." Yes, another original beginner's name. He nodded quickly in understanding as we navigated our ways quickly through the black clad men to take our spots in the chaos.

I was at Rookie's side at just the right time, as I took out a man about to knock him into next week, and he sent me a grateful look since he hadn't been given a mask either, like Hyuuga. He of course couldn't see the face I pulled from behind my mask, but that's alright. I was just thankful that if I had to be someone's mentor it was at least someone who could pull their own weight. This kid was pulling us down, and he'd been going on ops for a month now.

Once again pride surged through me at seeing Hyuuga burn someone with his fire and left screams in his wake. Ah, they grow up so fast. My distraction costed me, though, and I felt something sear the skin on my arm even through my shirt's sleeve. I pulled away and quickly touched the man's head, letting my Alice flow into him.

As he fell back screaming I cradled my arm to myself, assessing the damage quickly as I dodged another guy's fist. It looked like my arm had frostbite. The guy had frozen my arm with his Alice in a perfect handprint. I suddenly wanted to go back and give the writhing man a good kick in the face.

The rest of our backup arrived and we were able to take the rest of them down quickly. In the end we were left with more than a dozen and a half unconscious guys, Watanabe as well as his wife and the driver, and the rest of us. It's almost embarrassing how banged up we were, but in our defense the enemy more than doubled us. Not only in number but in age as well. Wonder how they felt fighting a handful of kids. And _losing_. Suckers.

Watanabe held his impassive wife impassively while the driver called in for another car with a stone cold face. Welcome bunch they were. Hyuuga joined my side as we bound the black clad men. Takahashi was bandaging Ito's leg, which had taken an impressive hit with a slicing Alice, and the rest of them were unmasking the men and trying to get an ID on them; find out who had dared attack us this time. Perhaps it was one of those anti-Alice Academy groups I'd probably end up joining one day.

I turned to Hyuuga, about to congratulate him on his performance earlier, but instead saw his eyes widen as he spotted something past me. I turned to look as well but by then Hyuuga had already darted off. What I was faced with was my mentee standing in front Watanabe, as if protecting him. From what, I didn't see until I'd already heard the shot.

My head snapped over to where the sound came from to find a heavily bleeding man on the ground, a gun raised weakly to aim at Watanabe and his wife. Only Hyuuga had taken the bullet instead.

I turned back to him just in time to see him collapse.

"Hyuuga!" I cried, before rushing over to him. Once I reached his side I fell to my knees, quickly assessing the damage as the three quickly fled to a different area, not even sparing a glance at the boy on the ground. He gripped his side with a pained expression, by which I realized he was still conscious though his eyes were closed.

"Stay with me Hyuuga," I said, lightly patting his cheeks to get him to open his eyes. He grunted then obliged, narrowing his eyes at me in pain.

"Atta boy." I then turned to the others who were now finishing tying up and knocking out all the men. I watched with satisfaction as Yakumo kicked the man with the gun in the face, audibly breaking his nose and sending him to the land of the unconscious with the rest.

I turned back to Hyuuga, swiftly unzipping my sweater and pulling it off with the intent of using it to staunch the wound. Only it was covered in dust and grime from our run here and the fight. I clenched my jaw, casting around for anything else I could use to cover it without bringing up the chance of infection.

"I don't have anything to cover it with," I confessed, turning back to Hyuuga. In response he narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth, then used one hand to sit up slowly with the other pressed against his side.

"I'm fine," he ground out, but I could see his body trembling in pain and how pale his face had gone. As Alice users we naturally had better tolerance than the average person, but even I knew that it wouldn't be long before he went into shock or passed out.

"Whatever you say," I said sarcastically, attempting to hide my worry that otherwise would've shown, then turned serious again. "Keep pressure on it. As soon as the car arrives we'll leave the others to guard it the rest of the way." We'd have to wait, in case these guys had backup on the way and we were needed again to protect the three impassive snobs. He made an irritated sound but slowly complied, pressing both hands firmly in his side. I pretended not to see the blood seeping through them and around his clothes.

"I told you, I'm fine." I rolled my eyes as he slumped forward to relieve some pressure on his stomach, and my fingers itched to pull up his shirt to check the severity of the wound for myself.

"Whoever said it was for your sake? Nogi will murder me if anything happens to you." That shut him up, like I knew mentioning his best friend would.

What felt like an eternity later the car finally arrived, which was good since I was beginning to debate on whether I should just abandon the mission to take the quickly fading boy for medical help, Persona be damned.

"Finally," I breathed, before hurrying to Yakumo where he had taken up guard over the Watanabes and driver, ignoring the many, _many, _bugs I crunched on my way to him.

"I'm taking Newbie back for medical." He nodded, and I went back over to where Hyuuga was slouched. Only he wasn't sitting up anymore.

I raced over to his collapsed form. "Hyuuga, don't you dare do this to me." I started patting his pale cheeks again but he didn't come around this time. "Natsume, dang it. We still have to get back to the Academy." I grumbled something about uncooperative boys, then lifted his shirt slightly to see the wound. A hiss escaped me at the deep hole decorating his side and I quickly leaned him over slightly to look at his back, hoping for a clean exit wound but there wasn't anything. I cursed, then I grudgingly folded my sweater so the worst of the muck was tucked away and tied it securely over his wound. Right now him bleeding out was my biggest concern. I'd have to worry about the chance of infection later. With that I carefully pulled his limp form onto my back. Thankfully he hadn't reached his growth spurts yet so we were roughly the same height, otherwise it would've been much harder to manage this.

"You're never going to hear the end of this." With that I took off as fast as I could with his form weighing me down.

It wasn't long before my legs began aching, but it was about then that I felt his blood soak through my shirt, so I didn't let my pace slow. A stitch formed in my side as I panted, but I forced myself to block out the discomfort and continue.

It felt like entirely too long before I wearily jumped into a tree in order to clear the gate – my legs nearly buckling when I landed – and raced to the infirmary, as usual going right past the annoying receptionist and straight to my favorite room. Once I finally lowered him down onto the bed and situated him somewhat so he was ready for the doctor I collapsed in the chair next to it. My legs were jelly, and the stitch had multiplied in intensity as I pushed at it without effect, leaning forward as I gasped for breath.

"Kokutan?" Asked my favorite nurse as she walked in. When she saw the state we were in she rushed to the bed quickly.

"He was shot," I panted before she could ask.

"Did the bullet go through?" I shook my head, too out of breath to bother answering past that.

"I'll get the doctor immediately." If not at any other time, I was now especially glad my doctor had the metal manipulation Alice. The doctor in question entered the room not long after with the nurse beside him and rushed to Natsume's side.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room, Saito-san." I was going to refuse, but his attention had already turned from me.

I stood on wobbly legs and left the room. It's best his attention was only on Hyuuga, anyway. So for the first time ever I sat in the waiting room.

It only took an hour for the doctor to finish, at which time the nurse came out to tell me my mentee would be alright, and I could go back to the room in about a half hour.

When he wakes up I'm going to kill him.


	8. Chapter 8

**Astraea Velzquez: ****Lol, your review made me laugh XD thanks for the enthusiasm**

**Cinammon (Guest): ****Thank you, I really appreciate the support. My brother just told the rest of my family that he's positive, and that he's recovering well.**

Hey guys. It's finally happened! I've caught up with the original story so from here on out you'll be getting new material, now from an 11-year-old perspective instead of their original canon compliant age of 8. What a relief. Also, as warned, I will be taking down the original story after posting this . I'm so excited to start on the next chapter and finally continue the story!

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize. It's terrible, I know.**

[o]

Chapter 8

Natsume's POV

I woke up to bright light shining through the window straight into my eyes. I shifted to the side to avoid it, then observed the room I was in, which was certainly not anywhere I expected to wake up. It didn't take long at all to identify the white walls, bathroom attached to the small room, and crisp white sheets, at which point an indescribable feeling of resignation and annoyance filled me; I was in the hospital.

After identifying my surroundings my gaze was quickly drawn to the person sleeping on the chair beside the bed and it was with surprise I saw Saito slumped over on it, asleep. Rather than waking her I let my eyes roam over her to really study my mentor for the first time since arriving at the Academy. I knew already that she was a bit tall for her age though I greatly looked forward to the day I was taller than her, if for no other reason than to be able to look down at her. Her long black hair reached the middle of her back, still mussed from the mission and her night spent in the chair. Someone must have removed her mask at some point during the night, though the edges of her face near her hairline were red in slight agitation where I now knew electric shocks were produced every time she used her Alice or passed the barriers over the war, however minor they were since receiving permission to do both. Some baby fat clung stubbornly to her cheeks though already it was taking on a more angular look that would continue to develop as she grew older. And although her eyes were closed presently, I knew when they opened it would be to a striking violet color that at times shone with mirth or in contrast were shadowed with a haunting darkness.

At the moment her head was bent forward in her sleep, slight shoulders curled forward in a slump that appeared very uncomfortable with her arms crossed loosely on her stomach. Her jaw was slightly slack where it rested on her chest and no stress or anger was lining her face, which was probably the biggest change simply because I'd never expected that bit to change. It was almost shocking how much less obnoxious she looked while asleep. Other than that I noticed that her clothes were covered in blood, and I put two and two together. She must've carried me back to the Academy after I collapsed. Red burned my cheeks slightly and I knew she wouldn't ever let me forget it. She shifted slightly and I didn't want to take the chance of being caught observing her, so I took the opportunity to wake her.

"Oi," I called. She shifted slightly again, so I continued. "Saito." Her eyes snapped up and over to me quickly, relaxing slightly when recognition set in. "Go shut the blinds." She narrowed her eyes but got up, muttering something about ungrateful brats. Once the blinds were shut I relaxed back into the pillow and realized just how much everything ached. It was awful. An IV was dripping something into my system for the pain, yet despite it I could feel a distant burning coming from my side.

I lifted the sheet to find myself in a hospital gown, which was even worse than the aching. I hate hospital clothes almost as much as I hate hospital food. Underneath the thin gown I could feel stiff bandages around my middle, and I remembered the agonizing pain I'd been in the previous night. A shudder ran through me and I put the blanket back down.

Turning my mind from my own discomfort I looked back over at Saito who had settled back into her seat.

She looked just as banged up as she had after fighting last night, and I was going to question why she hadn't gotten anything cleaned yet when I noticed that her eyes were narrowed at me. I sighed. Time for another lecture.

"Do you have any idea how completely and utterly stupid that was?" I didn't say anything because yes, it was stupid. "You could've died. Persona _and _Nogi would've been taking turns killing me if you died. And for who? Watanabe, who's almost as worthy of someone's sacrifice as an earthworm." I raised my eyebrow slightly, but she wasn't done yet. "If you do anything like that ever again, I will personally torture you until you're begging to die, then leave you in a dark basement to rot in your own filth and misery. Got it?" I blinked at her as she finished.

"Are you done?" She let out an exasperated sigh.

"I'm serious. Don't do it again. Watanabe isn't worth it, and neither is anyone else. At the Academy you need to look out for yourself, because no one else will." Just then a nurse walked into the room with a bundle of clothes in her hands.

"Hyuuga-kun, you're awake." I didn't say anything to that, because I already knew I was awake. She didn't expect an answer anyway and instead turned slightly to Saito. "While I check over Hyuuga-kun you go wash up," she said to Saito, giving her some clothes from the bundle she was holding before making her way over to my bed and setting down the rest of it. Saito grumbled something but took the clothes and went into the attached restroom, but not before shooting me a scathing look.

"_Don't_ make me repeat myself, Natsume. Or next time you could be dead." She then closed the door behind her and a moment later there was the sound of the shower turning on. The nurse let out a relieved sigh at the sound and I turned to her in question.

"She hasn't left your side since she brought you in last night. Not even to clean up or let me dress her wounds. For her sake more than anything I'm glad you woke up so soon." I looked back at the bathroom door in surprise, and it was about then that I realized she had addressed me by my first name. Since when had we gotten so chummy?

But I was shocked, so I didn't say anything as the nurse checked my injuries and changed the bandages. She seemed satisfied with what she found and marked a few things on her clipboard.

"Well Hyuuga-kun, you should be good to go. None of your wounds show any signs of infection, so as long as you keep changing the bandages they'll be gone in no time. I'll go grab some things for you, then once I've checked Saito-san she'll take you back to your room. In the meantime you can change into these." She indicated to the folded clothes at the foot of the bed before instructing me on a few other things to do with the bullet wound – rest a lot, drink water, and don't do any strenuous activities - then left, during which time I changed graciously into a plain white Tshirt and standard shorts. I wondered briefly if this was standard procedure with injured Dangerous Class students and if these would have to be returned, when I was distracted by the nurse returning with a little brown bag that she told me had bandages and pain pills to take every six hours.

The nurse left the room for a "quick moment", after which the sound of running water shut off and not long after Saito came out, towel drying her hair with her old clothes draped over one arm and now wearing the same white Tshirt and a skirt instead of shorts, still at her usual above-knee length. Now that she wasn't covered in blood and grime I could see the brunt of her injuries. There wasn't anything too worrisome, though the black handprint decorating one of her arms was a bit alarming.

Saito saw me eyeing her injured arm and slung the damp towel over the back of the unoccupied chair before dumping her filthy clothes on the same chair and taking a seat on the other.

"Frostbite," she explained while running her fingers through her long, tangled hair. "Nothing serious." I narrowed my eyes at her, because for someone who had reacted so badly to my injury she sure was taking her own lightly. She matched my narrowed gaze.

"Don't give me that look. I'm your mentor, that makes you my responsibility." I bit back a retort since she wasn't finished. "Anyhow, you were shot and lost a lot of blood. Next to that frostbite is child's play."

The nurse walked in and gave Saito the same look I had, except this time Saito sighed.

"I told you, there's hardly anything this time." The nurse's look only became more exasperated. "This is literally the worst of it."

"What happened?" She explained how the person she was up against had some sort of freezing Alice and got ahold of her. She didn't say anything else about the mission.

"I don't have anything that helps with frostbite so long after it's happened." Cue accusing glare. "So it's a good thing I haven't used my Alice today." What? I watched as the nurse put her hands on the wound, making Saito flinch in pain, before beginning to chant something under her breath.

"Her Alice is a healing one, but she has an Intermittent Shape, so that means she has to wait a while before being able to use it after she's healed someone." There was pain in her voice and I wondered how the Alice worked. I'd never seen a healing Alice before.

The nurse then removed her hands to show fresh, healthy skin where it had been black before, then went on to clean the rest of Saito's scratches normally, and I was surprised when she didn't protest at all like I thought she would. In fact, I've never seen anyone treat Saito like the nurse was now. I tried to figure out what was different and watched the nurse plop a bandage on a scratch taking up one of Saito's cheeks, causing her nose to wrinkle in slight disgust. Then it hit me: this nurse treated Saito like she would any other patient. She didn't treat her with fear.

The revelation shocked me because I knew it was true. Looking back on the past six months I've been here I recognized now the fear aimed at her by the students and even a few of the sensei. It was with this new realization that I watched the nurse leave soon after excusing us, taking the discarded towel and clothes with a promise both sets would be returned by the nanny-bot when it was sent to collect our borrowed clothes.

Soon after that we were out of the antiseptic reeking prison and on our way back to the dorms, me with a bag of pain killers in my hand and an awfully cheery Saito next to me.

"What's got you so happy?" She looked at me from the corner of her eye and raised an eyebrow. Then she gave a careless shrug and looked forward again.

"I've never willingly spent that long in the infirmary before. Makes being out again all the more sweet." It was my turn to lift an eyebrow, but I didn't comment as I instead continued to mull over my thoughts.

…

Kokutan's POV

It was a rough start, but thankfully the missions following weren't as bad as Hyuuga's first. Time passed. My birthday came and went, leaving me a year older than before. Not that age really mattered in this hole very similar to hell. I wouldn't be set free until I was old enough to "graduate" and I doubt I would live that long anyway. But still time passed, and Hyuuga's missions got progressively more challenging. He was a natural; he would make a good replacement for me someday.

Why the morbid thoughts? The answer would be one Imai Suburu, who had come to evaluate my health at Persona's request.

"Let's just get this over with," I sighed before lowering myself onto my back on my ridiculously large bed. Imai didn't answer but simply followed me. True, check-ups are routinely done in the infirmary. But between my episode and refilling my pain pill prescriptions, topped by Hyuuga getting shot, I'd spent entirely too long in the chemically reeking dungeon. In other words, if Persona wanted me checked up, fine. It just had to be on my terms.

Besides, this little appointment isn't routine. My routine check-up is in another month. No doubt Persona simply wants a better estimation on how long Hyuuga has to train before being expected to replace me. Gotta feel the love.

Imai hovered his hands over the length of my body; not healing, simply searching for anything out of the ordinary. He repeated this a number of times (I almost fell asleep more than once) before stopping and making notes on an official looking piece of paper.

"Alright Saito-san, we're finished." I sat up and faced him, waiting for the results; would I die in two years or three? Maybe even this year?

His glasses flashed as he looked down at the clipboard in his hand, reflecting the dim light of the rising sun.

"Overall, you're doing fine," he said. I leaned back on the squishy bed and waited for the catch. "But not as well as you could be." There it is. Now his recommendations. "You need to keep the usage of your Alice as low as you can. Not only that, but by using your Alice so often you're straining your body. Which means you need to rest often as well, especially after using your Alice." Imai doesn't know very much about the missions, of course, since he wasn't in the Dangerous Class, so I let my eyes drift to the side a bit as he continued. Ugh, I'm so bored. And tired. Unfortunately, that's what happens when you're forced to sleep outside in the cold all night.

"…are you even listening to me, Saito-san?" I blinked at the older boy's unimpressed tone and nodded dutifully.

"Every word." He gave me a deadpan look, then proceeded to grab his bag.

"Saito, others with the life-shortening Alice don't have episodes as often as you do for another few years at least. I'm not sure what exactly you're doing to expend yourself so quickly, but you need to begin using your Alice more wisely." I shot him a look as I slid off the bed, pulling my arms above me in a stretch and yawning widely. Guh. It should be illegal to be this exhausted. He shot me a look of his own and turned to the door as I dropped my arms back to my sides.

"I'll have to report your condition to Persona so he will monitor your Alice use more closely. However, if you value your life at all you'll listen to what I've said." With that the bespectacled Highschooler left my room. I gazed at the door long after it had closed, as if watching his retreating back, then let out a sigh and looked down. If it was up to me, I would listen to his warnings. I wouldn't ever use my Alice and live a long life where I got to do what I wanted to do. But it's not up to me, so I can't value my life.

My muscles ached from my most recent episode – it wasn't anything major – which was lingering longer than usual. The symptoms usually would've cleared up by now, but my mouth still tasted like blood and my heart seemed to jump irregularly every now and again. But I'd survive. I always do.

I changed into my workout clothes and grabbed a bottle before heading to my favorite workout room. Hyuuga's training was getting more difficult by the day, and he was visibly getting stronger. Actually, he was all but training on his own by now, so the two of us simply did our training together. I continued to tell myself that this was only because training at the same time as him made things more convenient, but I knew deep down that I was dreading the day he didn't need me anymore. Any time now he wouldn't need a mentor and I'd be released, leaving us to go on our own missions and train on our own time, and before then he wouldn't need a partner in class anymore either. Honestly, I'm surprised Narumi-sensei hasn't relieved me and Tobita from our partners yet in the first place.

Something gnawed away at my insides that I was beginning to recognize better as loneliness, but I shoved it down as I always do, entering the gym where the boy was already warming up. His eyes scanned me briefly, taking in my clammy skin and the faint bags under my exhausted eyes. But he didn't say anything about them, which led me to believe he had already received word of my most recent episode.

Since he didn't ask, I didn't tell, and instead joined him in his warmup before separating into my own routine, observing as he trained on his own. He was good at recognizing his areas of weakness and instead of steering clear of the harder things chose to drill them until there was noticeable improvement. At times he seemed lost as to what to do, in which case I joined him for a moment and gave him a few new drills to run through, which he picked up quickly and continued on his own.

I discreetly observed the boy while running through my own drills, assessing his techniques, areas that still needed improvement, and how he reacted to each flaw in his movements. I had done my job well; he didn't need me anymore.

"Hyuuga," I called, stopping my movements and waiting for him to follow. He slid his gaze back over to me and waited for me to continue.

"During your next mission I'm only going to observe. You'll be acting completely on your own." He nodded once, not asking for any explanation as to why, and simply waited another moment in case I wasn't finished before continuing where he left off.

He's healed very well from his first mission and the bullet wound was nothing but a scar now. Of course if he was a normal person he'd probably still be recovering (rather than currently training), but he's an Alice user, and as such he's stronger than normal humans. Not only in recovery, but in stamina, strength, and a whole slew of other things as well. Which really comes in handy for those of us in the Dangerous Class.

I glanced over at the clock adorning one of the walls and decided it was time to call quits. Persona had assigned me a special mission today that I couldn't be late for. And of course by _special_ I actually mean especially dangerous.

I grabbed my bottle and sent a small goodbye wave Hyuuga's way, not wanting to disturb him, and left towards my dorm quickly. I'd need to change before grabbing my weapons and mask. Normally I wouldn't care so much about being prompt, but Persona has been rather irritable towards me lately, punishing me for the slightest things done incorrectly, or even for looking at him, and I quote, "wrong".

Not more than a dozen minutes later I walked past the Highschool to get to the North-Eastern gates, where a car would be waiting for me. Only it wasn't a car that was waiting for me.

"What do you want?" I muttered at the black-clad figure leaning delicately on the bricks surrounding the gate. My aching back reminded me of my night spent on the hard dirt and I couldn't help but narrow my eyes in defiance at the man. I'd love so much to go up and punch that mask right off his face…

"Rough night?" I didn't grace him with an answer as I was still waiting for him to answer my own question, but my jaw tightened slightly nonetheless.

He smirked at my lack of response, the kind of smirk he gives before deciding on some sort of punishment for me. But instead of informing me of a new punishment waiting after I returned he simply stood straight, no longer leaning on the wall.

"I simply wanted to wish you good luck on this coming mission. It would truly be a shame if something were to happen to you." He began walking back in the direction of the Highschool building, a few little blue clad figures making their way to their dorms for their lunch break.

"After all, I would hate it if my favorite toy were unable to return." I watched his back as it retreated and a chill ran down my spine at the implication of his words. I suppose he'd finally grown tired of my attitude. Or was he just trying to mess with my head? Was he actually warning me? I turned back to the gates as they began opening, now feeling uneasy about the coming mission, and pursed my lips as I forced myself to analyze the facts. It's much more likely that he was threatening me than warning me. Maybe I'd finally pushed him too far and he felt Natsume was already good enough to take my place. And it wasn't like I could just ignore the mission and stay back at the Academy, or the punishment would be, well, very severe.

I walked through the gates and entered the waiting black car as I slipped my Alice-restraining mask on, which let out a slight zap to confirm that it was active. On the seat next to me was the file for this mission and I picked it up as the car started up. Then quickly felt dread pooling up inside my stomach as I read through it. Lately Persona had been sending me on increasingly dangerous missions, but this one definitely took the prize. He had sent me on a fool's errand. A suicide mission.

Maybe I really would die this year.

…

Natsume's POV

Ruka and his partner sat in the back with me again today since Saito once again failed to show up. While I didn't mind Ruka's company, Saito's continued absence began to worry me. Normally she was gone a day or two tops, but this was the third day without any sign of her. But I kept my worry to myself since I knew Ruka wouldn't share it.

He sent a glance my way though, since I was uncharacteristically neither napping or reading one of my ever-present manga. I ignored him just the same and watched a few animated drawings float around the classroom, getting in people's faces and just generally being inconvenient as we waited for study hall to finish. I watched a drawing that looked like a cloud with a face as it drifted lazily around the room, flashing sharp teeth whenever anyone got too close to it, and my gaze soon found itself settled on the door. Maybe I should ask Persona, though I hated the very thought of it. Maybe he knew where she was.

My finger began tapping against the bench impatiently and I itched to just leave, but I couldn't because…Wait, why couldn't I? Saito had already proved that it was perfectly fine to leave the class whenever. At least for us Dangerous Alices.

I abruptly stood with the intent of making my way towards the door, but a hand quickly caught my sleeve, stopping me. I turned sharply only to see Ruka with a concerned look on his face.

"Where are you going?" I frowned slightly, knowing I couldn't very well tell him that I was talking to my least favorite person to ask on the whereabouts of _his _least favorite person.

"I have to talk to someone. See you." That's good enough. He let go of my sleeve, allowing me to exit the room successfully this time, but I couldn't help but feel slightly bad at dismissing him so easily. We were, after all, best friends. But lately I haven't felt like I was being a very good one. I shook my head slightly at the thought, figuring I'd just have to make it up to him later. In the meantime I had a creepy masked psychopath to look for.

I don't know exactly where Persona's office was located, I don't actually think anyone really knows, but there are a number of places where he seemed to spend a lot of his time so I went ahead and checked those areas first.

He wasn't in the Dangerous Ability Classroom, not that I really expected him to be, and he wasn't in any of the gyms watching the training going on inside. But he was inside the weapons room, comparing the weapons inside with the inventory list someone must have made when taking stock that nothing was missing unless already accounted for by students for training.

I opened the door silently to see his back to me, and I narrowed my eyes at his spiky black hair, interrupted only by the strap holding his mask in place. It would be so easy to attack him like this, with his back turned to me. So easy.

"Hello Natsume," he said calmly, causing my eyes to widen in shock. How had he known it was me, or that I was even here? "Did you need something, or were you attempting to sneak up on me?" I stayed where I was, wondering if I should just walk back out of the open door and talk to him later when we were in a less dangerous setting. My foot slid back slightly as he turned around to face me, putting the folder down to his side, looking at me through his mask. Then again, I suppose any setting is dangerous if he was in it. I moved my foot back in place and tried to summon more confidence than I felt, schooling my features carefully so I appeared indifferent to the situation

"I'm looking for Saito." He regarded me for a moment before walking closer, making me take an instinctive step back.

"You're quite the sneaky one, wouldn't you say." He was now in front of me, making the difference in height, enhanced by his tall shoes, more obvious than ever. "Like a cat. A sneaky cat." His hand came up, encasing a lock of my black hair. My heart stopped in shock, and I froze as I considered the best course of action. Do I pull away? An image of Saito filled my mind, bruises forming the shape of restraints decorating her wrists, ankles, and neck, blood dripping from a gash lost in her hair. In explaining her condition, she simply said that she had disobeyed once again, warranting another punishment.

So I stayed still, tightening my jaw and glaring fire up at him. I'd let him flaunt his power over me. Not because I was afraid of getting hurt, but because I couldn't stand seeing Ruka and imagining Aoi with those same bruises if I made him angry.

His black painted lips turned up and he let his hand return to his side.

"I do believe I've found a new name for you, _Kuro Neko._" My fists clenched in anger and I had to will my fire not to emerge.

"Where's Saito?" I repeated once again, my voice coming out as angry as I felt. He gazed down at me for another moment, before turning and reopening the folder in his hands, comparing the weapons present and the ones listed.

"I fear your partner has disappeared." My eyes widened.

"She ran away?" That hypocrite. His mask turned to me slightly, but I couldn't see the expression in his hidden eyes.

"No, it doesn't appear that way." But then if she hasn't run away, that means…

"She was supposed to return from her mission yesterday or the day before. But she hasn't, which leads me to believe she's been captured. Unless, of course, she was killed." His head turned to me fully during his explanation, with a smile on his face.

With that I left the weapons room, slamming the door shut behind me. It was impossible! She couldn't be _dead!_

Persona's smile haunted me as I fled to Ruka's dorm. He wasn't disappointed by his best weapon's disappearance. If anything he seemed _happy. _Fire ran through my blood as I paced back and forth, keeping the fire inside only because I didn't want to burn down Ruka's things.

How could he. _How could _henot care about our lives?!

…

I told Ruka what Persona said, and despite his obvious dislike for my partner, and his fear of her because of what she'd done to her parents, he showed worry for her as well.

She didn't show up to class the next day. Or the next. I began to wonder if she really had been killed, until lunch period three days after I had confronted Persona.

Ruka had gone to grab a couple extra carrots from the nanny-bot for one of his animal friends, leaving me at the table, picking at my own food. With the thought that Saito wasn't ever coming back I had begun worrying about my next mission, wondering if I'd be sent out on my own for the very first time or if I'd be assigned a new mentor. Despite the fear of being sent out on my own, the thought of having another of my other classmates replace her almost seemed like the worse option for reasons that were unclear even to myself.

Ruka hastily sat back down in front of me, but his hands were empty and there was a panicked yet excited look on his face.

"She's back." I stood up quickly, looking around but not seeing my partner anywhere.

"How do you know? Where?" He stood up, talking quickly as the bell went off and people began putting their trays away, ushered by the robot that harassed anyone still sitting down.

"That Alice with good hearing said he heard her going back to her dorm."

I was conflicted on what to do. I wanted to ask her what had happened (and make sure she was actually back), but Ruka would probably want to come. But the next class was math with Jinno-sensei and he would no doubt get in trouble for skipping. It didn't matter so much if I skipped and nobody really cared if I did as long as I did well on my missions and improved in training.

Ruka must've seen the conflict in my eyes because he grabbed my shoulder.

"I'll go to class, but you should check on her. I know you're worried." I wanted to retort that I was most definitely not worried, but he had already hurried after the group of kids returning to class.

Whatever.

I took off quickly in the direction of the dormitories and stopped myself from thinking about what might've happened to her. If she wasn't dead, then that means she was probably captured. But who would be interested in capturing a kid? A powerful kid, sure, but still a kid. She wasn't even a teenager yet.

My thoughts wandered to how often Ruka had to escape from kidnappers back before the Academy. I suppose she was taken for the same reason: she was an Alice user.

I slowed as I approached her door, not wanting to sound like I was frantic to check on her and give her the same wrong impression Ruka seemed to have. Just as my hand was coming down to knock on her door I heard a chillingly familiar voice coming from inside, and I pulled my hand back just in time.

Why on earth was Persona in Saito's room?

I edged closer to the door, putting my ear up against it. The door hadn't been shut all the way however and crept open slightly at the pressure with a little _click _that I hoped they hadn't heard. With the door now open just a crack the previously muffled words cleared, though I wasn't able to see anything through it. I focused on the words Persona was speaking and went stock still as I registered just what was being said.

"…useless. You know you're worthless." Persona paused slightly as if he had heard something and I worried that I had been found out. But not even a moment later he continued. "A complete waste of space. Surely you didn't expect me to do anything else when you already know you're no longer worth anything to the Academy."

"You're lying," came a weak voice. "He's not ready yet. They still need me."

"Oh but Saito-san, you know that's not true. Because no one has ever needed you. Not me, not the Academy. Your parents didn't need you…Natsume doesn't need you, either. Does he?" When he said my name I took a quick step back, worried I had been caught, but stilled at Saito's silence. She couldn't actually be considering Persona's words, could she? They couldn't be true. Could they?

I recalled the fear that's always directed her way by the other students, of the uncaring teachers. I suppose her parents probably didn't have many good feelings towards her, because of what she was unintentionally doing to them. But what about me? Did I need her?

"It's an awful feeling, isn't it? Being unloved, unwanted. Nobody needs you, in fact all your classmates seem to hate you. _Fear _you." His voice got lower, and I could just imagine how he was now coming down to her level, positioning his face right in front of hers so she didn't have any choice but to look straight at the eyes of his mask. "Is that what your parents felt? Did your parents love you, or did they fear you, like your classmates do?" Silence enveloped the room. The unpleasant silence that feels like a suffocating blanket.

"I asked a question, and I expect you to answer." Yet she didn't, and I clenched my fist at the situation he was putting her in. Not answering would surely anger him, but answering would most definitely tear her apart.

The sharp sound of skin striking skin sounded abruptly from inside the room.

"Did they _love you _or did they _fear you?_"

"They feared me." I closed my eyes at her indifferent tone, knowing exactly what kind of pain she was attempting to block out.

"That's right. They feared you, and they hated you. Just like everyone hates you." Having finished mentally assaulting her, I listened as he straightened and turned around. "I'm so glad you returned safely, Saito-san. You'll be allowed some time to recover, so rest while you can."

I quickly turned into another hall just as Persona left her dorm, holding my breath until I couldn't hear the faint sounds his heels made on the carpet anymore, then waited another while just to make sure he was really gone.

Once I felt it had been long enough, I stepped back out and made my way back in front of Saito's door, hesitating on whether or not I should just leave her alone.

Persona's words came back to me and I was left once again with a question for myself. Do I need Saito? My initial reaction is to object, since I don't need anyone. Except maybe Ruka. But thoughts began making their way into my mind without permission, reminding me that though she was annoying and bossy, and most days I really didn't like her, I did need her. She had become a part of my life in the many months I've been here that I can't really imagine Academy life without.

At first I thought she was a stubborn and completely emotionless demon who enjoyed torturing me during my training, but I've come to realize that she does care and just shows it in ways that are easy to miss, ignore, or misunderstand.

Well, I suppose that answers that question. So I raised my fist and knocked lightly on the door, pushing it open soon after since I really didn't expect an answer.

I almost turned tail as soon as I pushed the door open, because I didn't have any clue how to deal with a crying Saito. But Persona's chilling words came back to me as soon as the thought of leaving came to me. I may need her, but right now she really needed me. Or anyone, but considering I was the only one here (and probably the only one who cared at all) that left this on me.

I pushed the door open a bit further and stepped in, watching as the injured and crying girl sat up straighter against the side of her bed and attempted to wipe away her tears before I could see them.

"What?" She snapped, head turned in the opposite direction from me. I clenched my hands slightly at seeing the condition she was in, and simply walked over.

"Go away, Hyuuga. You're supposed to be in class with Nogi." Her voice cracked slightly, but I simply sat down next to her. I really didn't know what to say in this situation, but maybe just having someone here with her would help.

She seemed to realize that I didn't have any intention to leave and heaved out a shaky sigh, though she kept her head turned in the opposite direction. No matter. I took the opportunity to study her.

She looked like crap, to say the least.

Whoever had captured her clearly didn't care that she was a kid, if the signs of torture were anything to go by. Her clothes were torn up in many places, dried and still wet blood staining her uniform many different shades of red. Some of her injuries still looked fresh while others showed slight signs of recovery. Dark bruises and scratches decorated her wrists, some of the deeper scrapes still sluggishly oozing blood, and there was an array of bruises varying in color and shape visible on all of her visible skin. I noticed her mask lying next to her on the ground and was relieved that Persona had at least removed it before leaving her.

I had just been looking at an array of large slices lined neatly on one of her lower thighs when she finally turned her head back. She still didn't look at me, but instead tilted her head back to rest against the edge of her bed. A dark bruise decorated the cheek I could see, and it blended in with the large bag under her eye. Just the same, I recognized the carefully crafted emotionless mask she had put on as the one I had nearly perfected after Aoi's accident. But the ease with which she wore it, and the fact that she almost made it look natural, almost alarmed me.

"Have you kept up your training?" She asked in a voice devoid of all emotion, clearly avoiding the elephant in the room. But I'm not one to beat around the bush. Never have been.

"I heard what Persona said," I told her. She huffed out an annoyed breath in response.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Saito." She turned to me sharply.

"Just leave it, okay? It doesn't matter what he said, and it doesn't matter what you say." She clenched her jaw, and something flashed through her exhausted eyes that looked almost like regret, before she returned slowly and stiffly back to her old position, all of her motions showing the amount of pain she was in.

I was tempted to leave and just let her sort out whatever she was dealing with on her own, but once again I hesitated. If she didn't want to talk, fine. But she was getting a lot of blood on her carpet.

"You need to go to the hospital."

"I'm fine." Alright, now I'm getting annoyed.

"You're going to bleed out." Her shoulders slumped slightly and her chapped lips pulled down just barely. Then, she spoke in the most vulnerable voice I had ever heard from anyone, so quietly that I wouldn't have heard if I was only a little further away from her.

"Would that really be so bad?"

My frustration left as quickly as it came, and I looked at the girl from the side of my eyes again. But this time I looked at her with a new light.

As long as I'd known her she'd been callous, harsh, and sometimes even seemed a bit evil. But right now, seeing her so vulnerable, I couldn't help but wonder just how much of that was to protect herself. After all, didn't I myself hide any and all weaknesses behind an indifferent mask?

Once again I was left wondering whether Persona had been right, all those months ago. Maybe Saito and I had more in common than either of us could have realized.

I took a deep breath and forced myself to relax a little bit. This approach wasn't working, but I was not going to let Persona get to her. So, I allowed myself to be a little vulnerable in the safety of her room, too.

"My mom died when I was young, so I only lived with my dad and my sister, Aoi." I could all but feel her attention switch to me at my abrupt words. "We met Ruka not long ago while trying to keep away from the Academy, and things were good. We were happy." My jaw clenched as I remembered those times from less than a year ago. Things had changed so fast.

"Then the Academy found us and sent some people to get me and Ruka. It's about then that the accident happened." Her attention was completely on me now, head pulled up from the bed and turned towards me.

"Something happened with Aoi's Alice. She has the fire Alice like me and dad, but for some reason she lost control that night. She burned down our whole town. People were hurt. She must've lost control, or something, and was left very weak." My shoulders slumped over slightly, but I was unaware. I was lost in memories from a night not long ago.

"I couldn't do anything. She was in that hospital bed, so pale. And tiny. She lost her eyesight because of her fever, and the doctor said she could have lost some of her memory, too. But people were angry, and I was afraid what they'd do to her, and say about her. So I took the blame. A few of them already knew I had a fire Alice, so it wasn't hard to convince them." I fell silent, remembering the harsh words, the small items thrown at me in a petty form of revenge. Most of the things hadn't hurt, really. Not physically. "I tried to make Ruka stay away so they wouldn't think he caused the fire, too. But…" A small smile forced its way onto my face at the thought of my best friend's sacrifice.

"Then you and Ruka came to the Academy and your sister was taken as your leverage." I nodded numbly and wished strongly that she wouldn't apologize in any way for the things I had suffered. That she wouldn't say she was sorry and she pitied me and it was wrong for me to go through those things. My heart ached for the loss of my childhood, and I wasn't sure if I could handle any empty apologies right then.

But I had forgotten that it was Saito I was talking to, and a reaction like that from her would be more shocking than Jinno-sensei wearing a pink bow in his hair.

"You must miss her." I looked up sharply at her words, meeting her violet gaze. My nod was unnecessary since she could see the answer in my eyes, no doubt. "And your father," she continued, almost uncertain. This time I didn't bother to nod, because of course I did.

"You must miss your parents too, at least a little bit." But instead of the reaction I was expecting, I got a completely unexpected one. Her expression immediately closed off, an array of emotions flickering through her mask too quickly for me to catch all of them. Guilt, shame, disgust, and…fear?

"I…" She closed her mouth, brought a hand to pick at one of her many scabs, and tried again. "I wasn't completely honest with you, when I told you how my parents died." Suspicion rolled off me in waves and I fought the urge to act on it. Some of my wariness must've seeped into my expression, because she immediately looked away again.

"I told you that my parents were affected the most by my Alice, since they were exposed to it every day. But my dad, he had a lot to fear. I could see it all, and some of the things…well, it's really no surprise that he turned to alcohol. As I got older my mom sort of just withered away. She didn't eat, she didn't sleep. But my dad." She seemed to crumple a bit, and for once I felt like I could almost see the scared girl hidden beneath all her masks. Her jaw clenched as her fists tightened even more than they already were. Her arm twitched a little, in that way I've seen it do a number of times when she's feeling especially vulnerable. But then her masks were back in place as quickly as they'd fallen.

"I'm not sure when my dad started hurting me. Maybe he always had, and I just can't remember that far back." I recoiled, shocked and disgusted at any man who could hurt their child. "He hurt my mom, too, but I think he knew deep down that I was the reason he was always miserable. He hit me a lot." Her arms wrapped around herself, as if she was attempting to hold all of her broken pieces together.

"When I went to school the other kids and the teachers didn't like me, either. Of course, their fears weren't anything like my fathers, but they were fears just the same. On days when my Alice was acting up more than usual they'd stick me in the closet for hours. It must've helped, because I went into that closet often." An image was painted in my mind of a young girl surrounded by her faceless peers and a looming teacher, shutting a closet door and leaving her in the dark. Listening as everyone was happy now that she was gone, and anger grew inside of me at the injustice of it all.

"Then, one day, a man in a mask approached me on my walk to school. I knew better than to talk to strangers, even though no one had really warned me against it, but he wouldn't leave me alone. And everything he said seemed to make sense. But I didn't trust him any more than I trusted anyone else, so I avoided him the best I could. Not long after he appeared I made a mistake before school." She gripped her arm, the one that always twitched, and a chill ran subtly down her spine, and her voice grew quiet.

"I thought my dad was going to kill me. He got really mad, yelling a lot. Mom was crying again." Her eyes were open, but she wasn't looking at anything. I knew she was reliving a bit of her past that she likely hadn't ever told anyone before, just like I hadn't told anyone mine. "He broke my arm, and somewhere along the line he started to choke me. I knew I was going to die, so I used my Alice intentionally for the first time. I somehow felt for his fear and made him see it to make him let go of me." My knuckles had turned white and I could feel the bite of my nails in my skin. Anger flowed through me as she recounted the tale of her childhood. There was nothing I wanted more in that second than to teach her cruel father a lesson he would never forget. I had to drag my mind away from the gruesome thoughts to focus on her words as she continued.

"He finally let go of me and instead grabbed one of our knives to attack the thing he was seeing. But I was afraid that he would turn his attention back to me, so I fled to the only other place I knew: school. No one cared enough about me to notice I was hurt, or that something was wrong. After what happened at home my Alice was acting out more than ever, and being in the closet only made it worse. I was afraid someone's hands would come out of the darkness and finish where dad left off. They must've still been affected by my Alice through the door that day, because they didn't let me out until school ended. By then I was…I was so scared. Everyone I saw was an enemy, and I couldn't go back home. So when Persona cornered me again I ran, and I hid." She took a shuddering breath.

"You already know the rest." I sat there in stunned silence for a moment, wondering at the terrible story I had just been told. I snuck a glance at the girl beside me, but she had rested her head back against her bed once again and was staring intently at the ceiling.

"Saito…" I began once again, only this time I didn't know what I was trying to say.

"Kokutan," she interjected instead, not moving her head at all.

"What?"

"You know my story now, which is more than any of the others know. So you can call me Kokutan if you'd like." I wasn't sure how to respond to her offer, so instead stood and held a hand down to her.

"You really need to go to the hospital, Kokutan." Her eyes moved down from the ceiling to meet mine and this time she didn't complain. She weakly grabbed my hand and I pulled her up, shocked at just how much she was leaning into me. Her injuries must've been worse than I thought.

"If you'd like," I muttered as we made our way to her door, me gripping her waist with one arm and hers coming around my back to grasp my shoulder for support. "You can call me Natsume."

"Thank you, Natsume," she murmured, all of her attention focused on not tripping and falling over her own feet as they dragged along.

If I'd been paying attention I would've noticed that the door was just a crack open, though I had shut it securely behind me, and if I had made it out any sooner I might have seen the black spikey hair disappearing around a corner.

[o]

Quick update on my brother for those concerned, he's still recovering well and is a week into his quarantine. I should clarify that he doesn't live with my family so we haven't been exposed (as far as I'm concerned), he is actually a nurse in CA so I expected he'd contract it sooner rather than later. He asked me not to tell my family since he didn't want my mom to freak out, or for my dad and another brother to minimize his situation on the basis that as a nurse he has high exposure to covid patients. Because the fact is that he's still suffering, even if he's not dying, and no one who's hurting wants to be told they were asking for it. The other day he did finally tell the rest of my family, which is such a relief honestly. Keeping it to myself was stress-inducing and I felt a lot of undo-pressure (which I imagine is the reason he told me in the first place). Thank you everyone for the well-wishes and support, whether it was written out or not. You guys were the only ones I was able to go to with this and I appreciate you all so much


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